Stake TON for UAE Golden Visa? Reversed just 20 hours after release.

Original | Odaily Daily Report (@OdailyChina)

Author｜jk

This weekend, the TON Foundation announced a plan to obtain a 10-year "golden visa" in the UAE through staking Toncoin, sparking heated discussions in the market and causing the price of Toncoin to surge. However, relevant departments of the UAE government later issued a statement, denying the existence of any such official project, and the price of Toncoin subsequently retraced its gains. Why is the TON Foundation promoting such a visa project on such a large scale? Will there be any reversal in the follow-up events? Odaily will take you through the background and consequences.

TON Foundation Launches Gold Visa Staking Program

On July 6, Max Crown, CEO of the TON Foundation, announced a "groundbreaking plan" on the social platform X, claiming that Toncoin holders have an "exclusive opportunity" to obtain long-term residency in the UAE by staking cryptocurrency. The plan requires applicants to stake Toncoin worth $100,000 for three years and pay a one-time fee of $35,000 to apply for a 10-year golden visa in the UAE.

The official website of the TON Foundation emphasizes several advantages of this program, including quick approval within about seven weeks from the submission of materials, a simple process that does not require purchasing property or meeting income thresholds, and the ability to include family members such as spouses, children, and parents in the visa application without additional costs. This project is promoted as a more cost-effective alternative compared to traditional routes—traditional applications for golden visas usually require at least about $540,000 (4 million RMB) investment in property or high-value, low-liquidity assets like fixed deposits. The founder of Telegram also shared related news on social media, attracting broader attention.

At the same time, the staked assets can also earn an annual return rate of 3-4%.

After this news was announced, the price of Toncoin surged significantly. According to publicly available data, on July 6, Toncoin rapidly rose from about $2.75 to a peak of approximately $3.06, with a short-term increase of over 12%. By the close of the day, the price of Toncoin fell back to around $2.89, still up about 5% for the day, and the 24-hour trading volume surged by over 250% compared to the 30-day average.

The UAE official denies and clarifies

However, the UAE officials quickly clarified the rumor.

On July 7, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, the Securities and Commodities Authority, and the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued a joint statement through the UAE News Agency, denying the existence of an official project for "pledging digital currency in exchange for a golden visa". The statement clearly pointed out that the issuance of the UAE golden visa has a clear and officially approved framework and standards, which do not include the category of digital currency investors. Regulatory authorities emphasized that digital asset investment is governed by specific regulations and is unrelated to golden visa eligibility. The Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority also added that the TON project has not received permission or regulatory endorsement in Dubai. Relevant authorities urged investors to obtain information from reliable official channels to avoid being misled or defrauded.

Affected by official clarifications, the enthusiasm for Toncoin in the crypto market has quickly reversed. The price of Toncoin rapidly fell from a previous high of around $3.03 to about $2.84 after the news broke, a decline of approximately 6%, essentially erasing the gains made earlier due to rumors.

Comparison of TON Channel and Official Gold Visa Threshold

Why did the UAE officials immediately come forward to clarify the related issues? Not to mention their attitude towards virtual assets, it is mainly because, the promotional channels for TON are much cheaper than the official channels.

The UAE Golden Visa is a long-term residency program launched in the country since 2019, aimed at attracting talented individuals and significant investments. The visa is valid for 5 to 10 years, allowing foreigners to live, work, and study in the UAE without a local sponsor. Applicants for the Golden Visa must meet strict criteria, including categories for specialized skill talents (such as doctors, scientists), public investment, and entrepreneurial investment. Among them, investment applicants must have an investment of at least 2 million dirhams (approximately 544,000 USD, 4 million RMB) in the UAE to qualify for the Golden Visa, and purchasing property also requires the property value to meet the same threshold.

This official threshold is much higher than the amount of the staking scheme proposed by the TON Foundation: the TON scheme requires staking $100,000 worth of Toncoin (about AED 367,000) and paying a processing fee of $35,000,** for a total of about $135,000 (about AED 500,000), which is less than a quarter of the official investment Golden Visa funding requirement. **The TON Foundation claims that its crypto staking scheme offers a faster, lower-cost, and digital path to residency without the need to buy a house or make a large deposit, which is touted as an innovative move in line with the UAE's image as a crypto-friendly nation. However, as the UAE official released later, there is a fixed framework for the golden visa review, and cryptocurrency holdings are not currently taken into account.

Analysis: Was the TON Foundation Scammed by Intermediaries?

According to an analysis quoted by Coindesk, this is actually a means for a third-party legal service agency to assist in applying for the UAE "Entrepreneur Visa" using Toncoin tokens, rather than a government-launched exclusive crypto visa channel. To put it bluntly, the TON Foundation was "tricked by intermediaries" into believing the channel was effective, only to be slapped in the face by official institutions.

Some comments pointed out that the release of this plan by the TON Foundation may have been misled by certain intermediaries, but promoting such information on a large scale without sufficient verification lacks basic due diligence, which has also significantly reduced the impression of the TON Foundation. Odaily reminds investors that this incident serves as a reminder for readers to treat such claims of "token exchange for visas" with caution — in the high-risk and volatile field of cryptocurrency, any claims involving major rights such as immigration need to be strictly verified to avoid being misled by unverified promotions.

It is worth noting that as of the time of publication, the relevant page regarding "staking Toncoin for a UAE golden visa" is still visible on the official website of the TON Foundation, and it has not been taken down; the promotional tweet released by the CEO of the TON Foundation on the social platform X has also not been deleted. This attitude has sparked new speculation: why has the TON side not withdrawn the relevant content after the UAE officials clearly denied the legitimacy of the plan? Is it due to an unresolved misunderstanding of intermediary information, or is there another undisclosed cooperative path behind it? Will the situation take a turn? Odaily will continue to follow up on the reporting.