Telegram takes over the TON ecosystem! Transaction fees cut to nearly zero, and TON once surged 24%

Messaging giant Telegram announced it would replace the foundation and personally take over the TON blockchain, while cutting transaction fees by 6x to nearly zero cost.

Messaging software giant Telegram said it has decided to replace the TON Foundation, take over control of the TON blockchain itself, and unleash its “transaction fees almost cut to zero” killer move. The news instantly ignited market enthusiasm, driving the price of the native token Toncoin ($TON) to surge strongly.

According to CoinGecko data, $TON surged more than 24% in the past 24 hours, jumping to $2.20 and reaching the highest level since last November. This rally is not only concentrated on TON itself—it has also quickly spread across the entire Telegram ecosystem: the popular token Notcoin ($NOT) rose nearly 26%; the meme coin Dogs ($DOGS) skyrocketed more than 100%; and other small- and mid-cap tokens issued on TON also posted astonishing single-day gains.

On Monday, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on the social platform X that Telegram will officially become the TON network’s largest “validator,” taking comprehensive responsibility for driving the ecosystem forward. He also previewed that new developer tools, performance upgrades, and a revamped official website—ton.org—will be rolled out one after another within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Becoming the largest validator means Telegram is willing to pour its massive resources into directly endorsing TON’s network security and development. This move largely removes a major long-standing concern weighing on investors’ minds—the gap between the grand vision Telegram outlined and the TON Foundation’s actual execution capability.

Cut transaction fees by 6x, targeting the broad retail crowd of “high-frequency micro-profits”

Pavel Durov also announced that transaction fees on the TON network have been significantly cut by 6x, nearly approaching zero. He had previously said that the fee per transaction would be lowered to 0.00039 $TON (about 0.0005 USD), and that in the future, the vast majority of transactions will gradually move toward the ultimate goal of “zero fees.”

Image source: X/@durov

A “nearly zero-cost” trading environment is crucial for the business model Telegram truly wants to promote. Whether it’s on-chain tipping within groups, blockchain mini-games, bot payments, buying and selling digital collectibles, or small-value personal transfers—everything needs extremely low transaction fees to support it.

For DeFi whales who spend lavishly, a few dollars in fees may not matter much; but for ordinary retail users who transfer only a few dollars or a few dozen dollars, high fees can kill the viability of a consumer-grade application. Ultra-low and fixed costs will make the TON network perfectly fit the real economic activities of “high-frequency, small-value,” further increasing TON’s appeal to its existing massive base of communication users.

Fundamentals still need to be tested; turning 1 billion in traffic into monetization remains the ultimate challenge

According to estimates from multiple third-party data tracking sites, Telegram has as many as 1 billion monthly active users (the official has never confirmed or denied this figure). However, the harsh reality is that in recent years, TON’s fundamentals have never managed to keep up with the extremely high expectations brought by this massive traffic.

According to DefiLlama statistics, the total value locked (TVL) across various DeFi applications in the TON ecosystem is only slightly above $69 million, far from the historical peak of nearly $800 million that approached in 2024.

In addition, TON’s daily on-chain transaction fee revenue is only about $3,600; decentralized exchange (DEX) daily trading volume is around $29 million; and dApp daily income is also roughly $134,000.

Ecosystem activity also faces challenges. Data from the blockchain explorer Tonstat shows that the TON network currently has fewer than 50,000 daily active transactions, contributed by about 136,000 unique wallets. Compared with the peak period from August to September 2024—when more than 2.2 million wallets generated nearly 700,000 transactions per day—this indicates there is still a great deal of room for the ecosystem to recover its heat.

Now, with Telegram taking the helm itself, whether TON can truly convert the massive “1 billion users” traffic into real on-chain economic activity is undoubtedly the next key focus closely watched by the crypto community.

• This article is reprinted with permission from: 《BlockBeats》
• Original title: 《Telegram Strongly Takes Over the TON Ecosystem! Fees Cut to “Near Zero,” $TON Jumps More Than 24% in a Single Day》
• Original author: Block Sister MEL