21Shares Lists ETP for Staking Telegram-Endorsed Token TON

• SIX-listed TONN will offer investors staking rewards without having to set up their own node.

• TON is the native token of The Open Network, which is the blockchain of choice for Telegram’s Web3 infrastructure.

• Telegram started work on TON in 2018, later abandoning it following action from the SEC.

Crypto asset manager 21Shares listed an exchange-traded product (ETP) for staking toncoin (TON), the token of The Open Network, which has received endorsement of messaging app Telegram.

The 21Shares Toncoin Staking ETP (TONN), which listed on Swiss SIX Exchange on Wednesday, will offer investors staking rewards without the hassle of setting up and managing their own node, the asset manager said in an email.

Staking is a way of earning passive income on crypto tokens by offering them to a blockchain network to help it run and receiving a yield in return.

The TON blockchain was started in-house by Telegram in 2018, but it abandoned development in August 2020 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged it was selling unregistered securities.

Members of the community, however, took the project forward while maintaining an association with Telegram. In September last year, the messaging app officially stamped the network with its endorsement and designated it as its network of choice for Web3 infrastructure.

Zurich-headquartered 21Shares surpassed $5 billion in assets under management (AUM) earlier this month.