Pantera Capital, a crypto venture capital firm with over $5 billion worth of assets under management, has invested in The Open Network (TON).

"We believe TON has the capacity to introduce crypto to the masses because it is used extensively within the Telegram network," Pantera Capital said Thursday. TON is a Layer 1 blockchain network initially designed by the messaging platform Telegram and continued by the open-source community.

Pantera's investment in TON comes as the Layer 1 blockchain has recently garnered attention. In February, Telegram revealed a plan to share ad revenue with channel owners and pay rewards using the TON token. Telegram recently implemented that plan and allowed users to purchase in-platform ads with TON.

Given Telegram's massive reach of over 900 million …