Kazakhstan's Financial Services and Regulatory Committee (AFSA) has approved Toncoin (TON) for trading on regulated exchanges, following an audit that determined the digital asset met the financial regulator's listing criteria.
Toncoin now joins a list of 107 cryptocurrencies approved by the government of Kazakhstan, including, but not limited to, TRON (TRX), Polygon (MATIC), Aptos (APT), Stellar (XLM), Avalance (AVAX), and digital asset staples Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
The Open Network's gaming ecosystem and the developing world
The Open Network and its native asset TON are emerging as popular choices for value transfer in the developing world. The Open Network leverages Telegram's user base of over 800 million daily active users and messaging system to deliver mini-apps and in-app payments. According to data from TGStat, Telegram boasts 55 million active users inside Kazakhstan.
Blockchain gaming continues to be an integral part of the TON ecosystem with games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, Yescoin, and TonPotato seizing the time and attention of users seeking to earn supplemental income.
Hamster Kombat, in particular, has managed to grab headlines, and the growing popularity of the game has prompted warnings and criticism from government officials. Recently, Uzbekistan's National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), a regulator for online business and digital commerce, issued a cautionary message to those seeking to capitalize on the game's token.
The government regulator explained that because Hamster Kombat's tokens are not onchain digital assets, the tokens are not within the regulator's purview. Playing the game has, thus far, not been banned inside the country.
However, the NAPP warned citizens that because the tokens may migrate onchain in the future, thereby becoming true digital assets, withdrawal of the coins may become an issue.
Not all smooth sailing
Despite the rise of the TON ecosystem, the network is not without problems, according to SlowMist founder Yu Xian.
Xian, a blockchain security expert, claimed that phishing attacks on The Open Network were on the rise amid the network's rapid expansion as a decentralized blockchain platform.
These phishing attacks are primarily due to TON's integration with the underlying Telegram messaging app, where scammers can create groups and post malicious links, Xian explained.