Telegram has formally replaced the TON Foundation as the main force behind The Open Network (TON), with founder Pavel Durov confirming the messenger will become the chain's largest validator. According to reports from BeInCrypto, this takeover represents the third stage of Durov's "Make TON Great Again" program, placing Telegram at the center of TON's infrastructure. The move signals the strongest indication that the messenger plans to anchor a billion-user crypto economy on the chain. As multiple experts note, without Durov's personal involvement, "no crocodile could be caught, no coconut could grow," and activities are now proceeding smoothly as they did in TON's heyday back in 2024. In his latest X post, Durov announced that new developer tools, performance upgrades, and a refreshed ton.org are coming within two to three weeks, demonstrating Telegram's commitment to driving the ecosystem forward.
Recent infrastructure improvements have significantly boosted TON's capabilities. As reported by BeInCrypto, the Catchain 2.0 upgrade cut block times from about 2.5 seconds to 400 milliseconds and finality from roughly ten seconds to one. The same upgrade lowered fees about sixfold, to around $0.0005, while the network can now process more than 100,000 transactions per second. According to Storm Trade founder Denis Vasin, this positions TON as one of the highest-throughput Layer-1 chains, making it suitable for frequent small-value transactions. Recent upgrades have further improved performance, with transaction finality now reaching roughly 0.6 seconds and fees cut by nearly six times to about 0.00039 TON (around $0.0005), with a longer-term goal of gas-free transfers. The fee reductions are particularly significant for consumer applications, as fees that are irrelevant to DeFi whales can still impact consumer apps when users are moving cents at a time.
Telegram's team staked approximately 2.2 million TON to claim the largest validator slot, demonstrating deeper commitment to network security. According to Alexander Tobol, chief technology officer at Wallet in Telegram, speaking with BeInCrypto, the validator move signals deeper commitment from Telegram and lifts interest in TON as a core part of the messenger's stack. The messenger's reach of more than one billion users provides TON with distribution advantages that few rivals can match. The rally spread across the Telegram ecosystem, with Notcoin gaining nearly 26% and Dogs rising over 100%, while several smaller TON-based tokens posted even larger moves, reflecting the broader market confidence in Telegram's direct involvement.
TON has experienced significant market activity following the governance announcement, with the token jumping more than 110% in 3 days to hit a four-month high of $2.90. However, overbought conditions have led to $11.1 million in capital outflows and $18.9 million in liquidations, with the token trading near $3 with extreme overbought readings. According to U.Today, TON's Relative Strength Index has shot to around 93, after a vertical rally from the 1.20–1.40 dollar range, with experts warning that RSI readings above 90 historically precede sharp volatility and corrections, expecting pullbacks into the mid-dollar range as healthy mean reversion. Despite the rally, TON's DeFi TVL sits at just over $69 million, far below its 2024 peak near $800 million, while daily active wallet activity has declined to around 50,000 from roughly 700,000 during the August-September 2024 peak.
The network has demonstrated real usage growth following the upgrades. As reported by crypto.news, TON's on-chain DeFi activity and liquidity have ramped up significantly, with total value locked rising by about 32 million dollars since May 4 to roughly 91 million dollars and DEX volumes reaching levels not seen since late 2024. Industry experts anticipate significant growth potential if the integration is implemented consistently. Tobol expects the network to lead all chains by active retail wallets if transfers, payments and mini-app services settle on TON, noting that "In such a scenario, TON could potentially become the leading blockchain by number of active wallets thanks to retail usage inside Telegram." The current staking yields of around 15% annually support liquidity retention, with users potentially transacting directly inside Telegram through bots and mini-apps. Recent developments show concrete evidence of this growth, with daily swap volume on STON.fi growing to over $40 million in recent days, up from approximately $1.5 million a week earlier, representing an increase of more than 26 times.
