Telegram-linked TAC Token Plummets 90% in 15 Minutes: What Happened?

The TAC (TON Application Chain) Protocol has just suffered a crash of more than 90% in just 15 minutes. At press time, the token was trading at $0.0046 after tumbling from $0.06.

Source: TradingView

Launched about a year ago, the TAC protocol is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain that bridges Ethereum DeFi to the Telegram messenger and TON (The Open Network) ecosystem. Its backers include TON Ventures, Hack VC, Animoca Ventures, Symbolic Capital, and Spartan Group. The token was also listed on Binance Alpha, which supports spot trading, and on Binance Futures as a TAC/USDT perpetual contract with 50x leverage.

The 90% TAC token flash crash explained

As for today’s freefall, market analysts attribute it to a sudden collapse in market mechanics rather than a security breach.

Since TAC is a relatively newly listed token, its trading pairs have suffered from shallow order-book liquidity. This meant that even a few large sell orders could trigger massive price swings. 

As shown by DEX Screener, several early airdrop recipients aggressively dumped the token into the market today. This prompted automatic stop-losses and liquidated leveraged long positions, further fueling the downward spiral.

Source: DEX Screener

However, even as today’s sell-off occurred, the TAC community already had fragile sentiment following the May 12 exploit that drained $2.8 million from the TON-Ethereum bridging layer of the TAC Protocol. 

At the time, the amount of funds was significant, as it was roughly equal to its entire Total Value Locked (TVL). While the TAC team managed to recover 90% of the funds through negotiations with the hacker, the incident left a lasting dent in investor confidence in the project’s security framework.

TAC team and crypto community statements

At press time, the TAC Protocol had not yet commented on the event. Crypto Twitter, meanwhile, flagged the event as the reason for the slow retail adoption of cryptocurrencies. 

Others drew lessons from it: respect liquidity on fresh listings, and airdrops can kill charts in the short term.