Crypto exchange Bitget and Web3 investor Foresight Ventures announced on Wednesday that they have increased their exposure to The Open Network (TON Blockchain) by $30 million through a deal with a number of unnamed whales of the TON ecosystem.

This investment wasn’t a traditionally structured deal where the investors buy tokens from the foundation that supports the blockchain, but rather direct purchase from TON whales a spokesperson confirmed.

“The investment is between Bitget, Foresight Ventures, and Toncoin holders. The TON Foundation is not involved in the deal. As TON foundation is actively supporting development and user adoption of the TON ecosystems, we will closely work with TON Foundation to boost the TON ecosystem,” a spokesperson confirmed to CoinDesk by email. “All TON tokens acquired have a lock-up period and will be gradually released according to the vesting scheme to ensure that all parties are committed to the TON ecosystem for the long term.”

TON has been one of the year’s notable growth stories, thanks to its connection with Telegram’s nearly 900 million users. DeFiLlama data shows that TON’s total value locked exceeds $400 million.

In April, Tether expanded to TON to boost peer-to-peer payments on Telegram. Recently the total authorized USDT on TON hit $1 billion. While Telegram and TON aren’t formerly affiliated, the two share an ecosystem.

"The surge of the TON ecosystem represents the biggest growth opportunity in the cryptocurrency market this year and in the next three-to-five years,” Forest Bai, co-founder and CEO of Foresight Ventures, said in a release.

Toncoin (TON) is currently trading for $5.51, up 5% in the last week according to CoinDesk Indicies data.

Edited by Parikshit Mishra.