Challenge Amazon AWS! Telegram launches the privacy AI network "Cocoon", with a hundred times Computing Power betting on TON.

The globally renowned messaging application Telegram has officially entered the field of decentralized AI infrastructure. Founder Pavel Durov announced the launch of the privacy computing network “Cocoon” based on the TON Blockchain. This network utilizes Intel's TDX technology to build a trusted execution environment, aimed at protecting user data privacy while connecting idle global GPU Computing Power, directly challenging the monopoly of tech giants like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Despite this significant ecological upgrade announcement, the price of Toncoin (TON) remains under pressure from the broader market, maintaining around $1.49, with the market yet to fully price its potential value.

Cocoon Network Emerges: Challenging Tech Giants' Monopoly with Privacy Computing

At the Blockchain Life 2025 forum held in Dubai, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov personally unveiled the mystery of the “Cocoon” network. This is not just a simple feature update, but an ambitious project aimed at reconstructing the landscape of AI computing infrastructure. Cocoon, short for Confidential Compute Open Network, positions itself as a Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN), with the core mission of breaking the monopoly of centralized cloud service providers such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure over AI Computing Power.

The operating model of this network is clear and disruptive: it creates a bi-directional market. On one end are individuals or institutions worldwide with idle graphics cards (GPUs) who can contribute their Computing Power to the network and receive Toncoin as a reward; on the other end are developers who need to run AI models for “inference” (i.e., processing user queries), and they can rent this Computing Power at a lower cost with stronger privacy protection. This model decentralizes and democratizes what was once centralized Computing Power resources, attempting to return control of AI infrastructure from large companies back to users.

The most striking technological highlight lies in its privacy protection mechanism. Cocoon deeply integrates Intel's Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) technology, enabling the creation of a “trusted execution environment” at the hardware level. This means that even if the data processing occurs on a stranger's GPU, the owner of that GPU cannot peek into or access the raw data, user prompts, or any metadata being processed. This fundamentally addresses the “privacy paradox” that decentralized AI has long faced, clearing the way for the development of sensitive applications (such as healthcare, finance, and personal assistants).

Cocoon Network Core Features and Advantages

Technical Foundation: Based on the TON Blockchain, utilizing Intel TDX hardware-level security technology

Business Model: A bi-directional DePIN market connecting GPU Computing Power suppliers with AI developers' demand.

Payment Method: Use Toncoin (TON) for all Computing Power transaction settlements.

Primary Client: Telegram itself will become the main demand side in the early stages of the network launch.

Privacy Commitment: Achieve “Confidential Computing”, ensuring that node operators cannot view user data.

Competitive Positioning: Directly benchmarking centralized cloud services such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Why Choose TON? Analyzing the Strategic Value of Cocoon to the Telegram Ecosystem

Cocoon's choice to build on the TON Blockchain is no coincidence; it is a crucial part of Telegram's macro strategy. TON is no longer just a payment tool within Telegram; it is gradually growing into the economic foundation of the entire Telegram “digital nation.” From creator rewards and advertising payments to the current Computing Power market settlements, the practical scenarios for TON are being layered and enhanced, solidifying its status as the “blood” of value circulation within the ecosystem.

For Telegram, launching Cocoon is a brilliant move that balances offense and defense. From an offensive perspective, Telegram has a potential user base of over 1 billion, and the increasingly popular Mini Apps on its platform provide excellent mass landing scenarios for AI functionalities. In the future, the Cocoon network can offer privacy and low-cost AI computing power for these mini apps, allowing developers to easily integrate features such as smart chatbots, image generation, or data analysis, thereby greatly enriching Telegram's ecological capabilities and enhancing user stickiness.

From a defensive and narrative perspective, against the backdrop of increasing emphasis on digital privacy rights and tightening global regulation of data monopolies by tech giants, Telegram's consistent “privacy first” brand image perfectly aligns with Cocoon's “confidential computing” philosophy. Max Crown, CEO of the TON Foundation, stated: “In a world where centralized AI systems harvest data and concentrate power, Cocoon rebalances the equation by allowing users to control their computing, privacy, and ownership.” This reinforces Telegram's moral high ground as a challenger to traditional tech platforms, attracting more privacy-conscious developers and users.

Therefore, a powerful growth flywheel has formed between Cocoon and TON: the network effects and practical demand of Cocoon will drive more Toncoin to be used for payments and staking, increasing its scarcity and value; while the prosperity of the TON ecosystem and support for the coin price can feed back into the Cocoon network, attracting more computing power suppliers and developers to join, creating a virtuous cycle.

Market Reaction is Tepid: Why is the TON Price Ignoring Major Positive Developments?

Despite the release of Cocoon being widely regarded as an epic boon for the TON ecosystem, the reaction from the cryptocurrency market has been surprisingly muted. After the announcement, the price of Toncoin did not experience the expected surge, instead hovering around $1.49. Over the past month, TON has even experienced a more than 35% deep correction. This phenomenon of “good news being fully priced in as bad news” or “ignoring good news” is not uncommon in the highly volatile cryptocurrency market, and there are multiple reasons behind it that are worth exploring.

The primary reason is the suppression of macro market sentiment. Recently, the entire cryptocurrency market has been shrouded in risk-averse sentiment, with leading assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum facing continuous pressure, and the market's liquidity is tight. In such an environment where “mud and sand are mixed together,” positive news from individual projects often struggles to stand out, and its positive effects are easily offset by the overall bearish sentiment. Investors are more inclined to hold their positions and wait or cash out rather than making new deployments based on fundamentals.

Secondly, from a technical analysis perspective, the chart trend of TON is indeed not optimistic. Since mid-2024, the price has been operating within a clear downward channel and is currently approaching the lower boundary of that channel. Key indicators such as MACD remain below the zero axis, and the signal line's dead cross pattern has not changed; RSI, around 28, shows oversold conditions but has not formed a strong bottom divergence. Market analysts point out that if bearish pressure continues, TON may continue to test support near $1.26, or even challenge the psychological level of $1.00. Any effective rebound will first need to overcome the strong resistance zone around $2 near the mid-channel.

Finally, the time lag for beneficial realization is also key. Although the Cocoon network has announced its launch, its large-scale commercial use, significant revenue generation, and feedback to the TON ecosystem will still take time. The recruitment of GPU suppliers, the cultivation of developer communities, and the emergence of killer applications based on Cocoon are not processes that can be achieved overnight. The current market is more focused on short-term liquidity and price trends rather than long-term narrative value. This provides patient value investors with an opportunity to examine and position themselves during the downturn, but it also means that short-term prices may continue to deviate from the fundamentals.

Track Observation: Opportunities and Challenges at the Intersection of DePIN and AI

The release of Cocoon has once again brought public attention back to the popular track of “DePIN” (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). Similar to Cocoon, projects like Akash Network (Decentralized Cloud Computing) and Render Network (Decentralized Graphics Rendering) have long been exploring the integration of global idle Computing Power resources using Blockchain technology. Their common vision is to create a more efficient, fair, and censorship-resistant resource market.

Compared to these pioneers, Cocoon's biggest advantage lies in its “born rich” status - backed by Telegram, a super ecosystem with a billion-level user base. This solves the most troublesome “cold start” problem for DePIN projects. As the first and largest customer, Telegram can immediately provide stable demand for the network, attracting Computing Power suppliers to join. This strong built-in demand is a starting point that other independent DePIN projects find hard to match.

However, opportunities always coexist with challenges. The core challenge faced by the DePIN network is whether its service stability and performance can match that of centralized cloud services. Amazon AWS can provide a 99.99% Service Level Agreement (SLA) and a globally consistent low-latency experience, while a decentralized network relies on numerous independent nodes, whose online rates, network connectivity, and hardware configurations vary widely. Ensuring the service quality of complex AI model inference tasks is a significant technical and management challenge. In addition, price uncertainty caused by supply and demand fluctuations may also deter some enterprise developers.

On the other hand, Nasdaq-listed company AlphaTON Capital has announced a “substantial investment” in the hardware required for the Cocoon network, planning to deploy next-generation GPUs with large memory in strategic data centers. This indicates that, in addition to attracting idle computing power from retail investors, professional institutional computing power suppliers will also become the backbone of the network. This “hybrid” computing power supply structure may find the best balance between the ideal of decentralization and the practical commercial viability.

Telegram has launched Cocoon, which not only adds a new service to its feature list but also sounds the horn for an assault on the core fortress of centralized tech empires—cloud computing and AI infrastructure. This is a long battle fought with privacy as the spear, community as the shield, and Blockchain as the settlement basis. Although the short-term price of Toncoin has not yet reflected the weight of this transformation, the Cocoon network has anchored an imaginative value narrative for the TON ecosystem. When a billion users connect through a privacy-secure network with the world's idle Computing Power, we may be witnessing the embryonic form of a decentralized digital economy, quietly nurtured within the shell of giant applications. In the future, the measurement of TON's value will not only be the candlesticks on transaction charts but also the scale of its Computing Power and the realization of digital sovereignty.