TON Foundation Confirms UAE Golden Visa Offer Is Not Official

After a wave of criticism over claims of an express UAE Golden Visa offer, the TON Foundation has set the record straight. In a terse statement, the organization denied government involvement in the project that offered applicants a 10-year Golden Visa for staking $100K worth of TON for three years.

TON Foundation Clarifies Status Of Golden Visa Project

According to a blog post, the TON Foundation has waded in to rectify the swirling narratives of its UAE Golden Visa initiative. The Foundation notes that the project is an independent collaboration between TON and an unnamed licensed partner dabbling in tokenized assets and blockchain infrastructure.

The TON Foundation confirmed that the project does not have any formal government backing, but it is an “exploratory effort.” The organization confirmed that the announcement was premature and has since taken down the initial post offering the visa initiative.

Over the weekend, reports of TON Foundation offering applicants a 10-year Golden Visa circulated on X (formerly Twitter). An official blog post from the Foundation claimed to guarantee the visa for applicants if they staked $100,000 worth of TON tokens for three years. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao questioned the TON Foundation’s claims over the absence of an official disclosure.

“To clarify, no official Golden Visa program has launched in partnership with the government of the United Arab Emirates, nor has any governmental endorsement been granted to TON,” read the announcement.

Early in the day, three key UAE regulators released a joint statement denying any involvement in the staking-TON-for-visa scheme. The trio of the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs, and Port Security (ICP), the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) confirmed that eligibility for the Golden Visa does not include digital asset investors.

Following the disclaimers, TON price tanked by double-digit percentages as investors’ sentiments turned bearish. The TON ecosystem has previously grappled with fake reports gaining significant traction and subsequent clarifications triggering a massive decline.

Back in May, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced a Telegram-xAI partnership, but Elon Musk denied the signing of any deal. TON price tumbled by over 10% following Elon Musk’s denial of a partnership with Telegram.