The Open Network (TON) is a fully decentralized Layer 1 blockchain originally designed by Telegram. It is scalable, sharded, and built for fast, low-cost, and energy-efficient transactions, with every feature designed for everyday users. Through TON, Telegram users can now buy and sell cryptocurrencies without ever leaving the app.
Currently, TON coin is attracting significant attention, maintaining growth despite broader market volatility. Following the FTX collapse, this open-source protocol remains one of the few thriving ecosystems.
So, what exactly is TON? How does Telegram use it to provide crypto services to its users? Let's explore.
Understanding TON: History and Vision
To understand TON's intrinsic value, it's essential to look back at its history.
The Rebranding of Telegram Open Network
In 2017, Telegram developed a blockchain platform named Telegram Open Network (the original TON) and issued a native crypto asset called Gram. The following year, it conducted an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for specific investors, raising a staggering $1.7 billion, making it the second-largest ICO in history at the time.
However, in October 2019, the U.S. SEC charged Telegram Open Network with conducting an illegal securities offering. By May 2020, Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, publicly announced the abandonment of the TON blockchain project and agreed to an $18.5 million settlement with the SEC.
After the project was abandoned, it was handed over to the community and rebranded as The Open Network.
TON's Launch and Development
Following Telegram's exit, a developer community called newTON (renamed the TON Foundation in May 2021) took over its development. They rebranded the project to The Open Network and renamed the $GRAM token (which never officially launched) to TON.
Durov expressed his support for the project in December 2021, stating, "I am proud that the technology we created is alive and evolving... TON is still ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm."
In April 2022, the TON Foundation announced the creation of a $250 million ecosystem fund, the "TONcoin Fund," backed by exchanges and institutions like Huobi, KuCoin, MEXC, 3Commas Capital, TON Miners, and Kilo Funds.
TON's Core Mission
In an interview, a TON Foundation representative stated: "TON is designed for millions of users. One of our goals is to make using blockchain no more complicated than using the applications users are already familiar with."
While Bitcoin and Ethereum were blockchain pioneers, these networks face challenges like high fees, slow transaction speeds, and a steep learning curve for daily use. TON aims to solve these problems.
In just one year, a complete ecosystem with all necessary products and services was created, including tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), staking, domain names, marketplaces, multi-functional wallets, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and other DeFi services.
TON has bridges to Ethereum, BSC, and the Orbit Bridge. TON coin is the native cryptocurrency used to pay for executing smart contracts, using dApps, and participating in governance. The Open Network is currently operational with 240 validators and 1.4 million addresses.
TON can validate and process millions of transactions per second thanks to its support for dynamic sharding and workchains. In other words, TON's adaptive architecture allows it to scale infinitely without sacrificing performance.
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What Makes TON Special? Key Features and Comparisons
TON's unique architecture makes it an efficient, fast, and scalable blockchain system. The combination of a masterchain and workchains, along with the use of hundreds of shards, enables TON to handle a massive transaction throughput. Key advantages include ultra-fast transaction speeds, low fees, and user-friendly applications.
The masterchain is primarily responsible for storing general information about validators, workchains, and their shards on the blockchain. In contrast, workchains contain information about events like smart contract transactions and value transfers. Each workchain can be subdivided into up to 2^60 shards. This sharding approach horizontally partitions the database, helping reduce network load and backlogs of unverified blocks.
Furthermore, TON's Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism provides an efficient way to pay transaction fees, settle payments, and validate transactions. The TON token is crucial for the system's operation, with a current annual inflation rate of approximately 0.6%.
Most importantly, one of TON's primary goals is to make the blockchain network as simple and quick as the applications users use daily. This is expected to attract more users and ecosystem projects, further developing and promoting the technology. Although the ecosystem is still developing, TON's transaction speed can theoretically reach one million transactions per second, potentially making it one of the fastest blockchains on the market.
TON vs. Ethereum vs. Solana
To quickly understand TON's positioning, it's helpful to compare it to two other major Layer 1 blockchains: Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). Key differentiators include:
- Scalability: TON's sharding architecture is designed for mass scalability from the ground up, whereas Ethereum relies on Layer 2 solutions for scaling.
- Speed & Cost: TON boasts faster block times and significantly lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum.
- Integration: TON's deep integration with Telegram's massive user base provides a unique adoption advantage that neither Ethereum nor Solana possesses natively.
The TON Ecosystem: Services and Utilities
TON is renowned for its utility and emphasis on efficiency. Its goal is to make it as simple as possible for end-users to find utility in the token. The TON development community has also incorporated many advanced features that distinguish it from competitors.
TON introduced radical new concepts for smart contract development. Designed after Ethereum's launch, it benefited from understanding what worked well in the EVM model and what could be improved. The most important aspect of TON is that it was created to put blockchain in the hands of everyone in the world.
Key components of the TON ecosystem include:
- TON Storage: This feature allows for decentralized data storage, functioning similarly to Dropbox. It uses private keys for encryption, adding a layer of security for private and public online storage.
- TON Proxy: This service allows users to connect to the TON network using a proxy, similar to TOR or I2P, helping them avoid censorship and easily access dApps.
- TON DNS: This domain name service improves the usability of crypto wallets, accounts, smart contracts, and websites by providing human-readable names instead of long strings of numbers and letters.
- dApps and Services: The TON blockchain hosts numerous dApps and services using smart contracts, including StickerFace for NFT avatars, TON Diamonds—a decentralized NFT marketplace, and community projects like TON CATS and TON Hamsters.
- Wallets: TON offers custodial wallet services and partners with several third-party non-custodial wallets. Telegram's integrated Wallet allows for easy transactions, and users can also store, transfer, and swap Ton using bots.
Use Cases for the TON Coin
The Toncoin (TON) is most commonly used to pay commissions for blockchain transactions. Due to its sharded design, the token can also be used to pay for cross-shard transaction fees or to create new workchains.
Additional use cases include:
- Paying for decentralized data storage.
- Covering fees for using TON Proxy.
- Paying for TON DNS services.
- Facilitating payments within dApps on the blockchain.
- Rewarding validators who maintain the blockchain.
A significant development occurred in January 2025, when Telegram and the TON Foundation announced an expanded partnership. According to the collaboration, "TON will become the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for the Telegram Mini Apps ecosystem, supporting Telegram's global user base of over 950 million monthly active users."
This means blockchains like Solana and Sui can no longer be integrated into Telegram. Furthermore, Toncoin became the primary option for crypto payments within Telegram, used for purchasing Telegram Stars, Premium subscriptions, ads, and Telegram Gateway services. Toncoin will also be the sole payment medium for mini-app developers and channel owners receiving revenue.
TON Tokenomics and Supply
The initial total supply of TON coin was 5 billion. The current operational model is similar to Ethereum's, rewarding PoS validators with TON, increasing the total token supply by approximately 0.6% annually.
Unlike typical token distribution models, TON allowed miners to mine coins using a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism starting in June 2020. 98.55% of the total supply was allocated to mining, with the remaining 1.45% reserved for the team. The final TON coin was mined in June 2022.
- Advantage: There is no risk of early investor token unlocks causing sell pressure.
- Disadvantage: Tokens are concentrated in the hands of early miners, leading to a relatively low distribution level. The top 20 addresses (excluding official ones) hold about 26% of the total token supply.
TON Token Burn Proposal
In a move towards a deflationary model, the TON community voted on a proposal to burn 50% of all transaction fees on the network, with the remaining 50% going to validators as usual. The proposal was approved with a 98.22% majority in June. The foundation estimates an initial burn rate of 350-400 TON per day. As the TON ecosystem grows and daily transaction volume increases, the burn rate is expected to rise, leading to a noticeable reduction in the total supply over time.
TON Price History and Analysis
Shortly after its debut, Toncoin's price remained in a narrow range until October 2021. In early November 2021, TON surged to the $5 mark, reaching its first major peak. This surge followed a staking event organized by the OKX cryptocurrency exchange.
2022 was a bearish year for Toncoin, like most cryptocurrencies. However, the token demonstrated resilience, recovering from a low of around $0.80 in mid-2022 to reach $2.40 by year-end.
Driven by a broader crypto market recovery and the emergence of TON ecosystem tokens like DOGS and NOT, TON's popularity soared in 2024. It entered a massive bull run in June, reaching a new all-time high of $8.24 on June 15th.
A significant price surge occurred in September 2023 when Telegram announced "TON Space," a self-custody wallet built on the TON blockchain, at the Token2049 event in Singapore. This news propelled TON's price upwards by over 80% in a month.
The Future of TON: Ecosystem Potential Analysis
The future potential of TON can be analyzed through three main lenses: airdrops, its potential user base, and exchange listings.
- Token Airdrops: The TON ecosystem may use airdrops to distribute tokens to users actively engaging with its services or applications. This strategy could attract new users and inject energy into the ecosystem, moving tokens from early miners to a broader audience.
- Potential User Base: The sheer scale of Telegram's user base is TON's biggest advantage. While Bitcoin has around 1 billion addresses and Ethereum has about 170 million, TON currently has approximately 2 million addresses, indicating massive growth potential. Telegram's 700 million-plus users represent a goldmine for the TON ecosystem. Unlike other projects that must market their product to find users, TON is built for an existing, massive audience. The seamless integration of crypto payments directly into Telegram chats dramatically lowers the barrier to entry, which is crucial for mass adoption, especially in developing countries with limited access to traditional financial services.
- Exchange Listings: While TON perpetual futures contracts are listed on top-tier exchanges like Binance, the TON spot market is not yet available on Binance. Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, only a few, including TON, are not listed on Binance. A potential future spot listing on a major exchange like Binance could provide significant exposure and liquidity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the relationship between Telegram and TON?
While Telegram is no longer actively developing TON, it maintains a strong partnership with the TON Foundation. Telegram has deeply integrated TON-based services, like its built-in wallet (TON Space), and has designated TON as its preferred blockchain infrastructure for its mini-app ecosystem.
How can I buy TON coin?
TON can be purchased on several major cryptocurrency exchanges. You can typically buy it using fiat currency (like USD) or other cryptocurrencies (like USDT or BTC) through spot trading markets.
What is TON used for?
TON coin is used to pay for transaction fees, stake for network security, purchase services like TON DNS domains, and facilitate payments within the TON ecosystem and Telegram's integrated services.
Is TON a good investment?
Like any cryptocurrency, investing in TON carries risk. Its value is tied to the adoption and success of its ecosystem. Its unique integration with Telegram provides a significant potential user base, but investors should always conduct their own research (DYOR) and understand the volatility of crypto markets.
How does TON's scalability work?
TON uses a technology called infinite sharding. Its blockchain can be split into multiple smaller chains (shards) that process transactions in parallel, significantly increasing the total network capacity compared to blockchains that process transactions one block at a time.
What is the difference between TON and Toncoin?
"The Open Network" (TON) is the name of the blockchain platform itself. "Toncoin" (ticker: TON) is the name of the native cryptocurrency that powers the network, used for fees, staking, and governance.