Kate Irwin

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The Open Network, aka TON, made a splash with Telegram games and crypto integrations built on top, like with NOTcoin, which has seen over $1 billion in total volume traded since its launch.



A TON app page lists over 570 different gaming-related TON apps, which is a staggering number for any chain. But are the games on TON any good — and where does the TON ecosystem go from here?



“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Ivan Gusev, head of fun at TON NFT marketplace Getgems, tells me.



The games that launched on TON in 2024 are very early-stage right now. Jack Booth, co-founder of TON Society, an organization that contributes to TON, tells me he believes the games that release in 2025 and beyond will be evolved — hopefully better — versions of what we’re seeing now.



The tokens launched via TON and Telegram also don’t have much staying power. The games are typically very simple, using “tap-to-earn,” spinning a roulette, or other play-to-earn methods.



“The sustainable token model is something that I think these games will start to implement,” Booth said, noting that in his view, crypto in general has been too much about price speculation thus far.



In addition to playing games to earn altcoins, Telegram users can also buy Telegram usernames, profile decals, stickers, and more via TON as NFTs using the TON cryptocurrency.



Telegram has begun using TON for its own products and ads without notifying TON builders, Booth said. Telegram doesn’t tell TON builders what it’s going to do or when, creating a symbiotic but disjointed relationship.



Booth and Gusev both separately told me that TON builders like themselves have “zero relationship” with Telegram.



“We don’t know Telegram’s plans. I’m pretty sure Pavel doesn’t know Telegram’s plans,” Gusev tells me with a smile, referring to Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov. “They operate in chaos.”



Despite the mystery around Telegram’s operations, however, TON builders like Booth and Gusev are confident that keeping TON tied to Telegram is the best move — they’re happy on Telegram. 



This is primarily because Telegram already has so many users — billions, in fact, many of whom like crypto. And user acquisition and growth is arguably one of crypto’s biggest hurdles.



Booth sees 2025 as a year where more favorable US regulation could mean the Telegram Wallet may become available in the US “very soon.”



Updated Feb. 20, 2025 at 1:31 pm ET: Clarified relationship between TON builders and Telegram.



Updated Feb. 19, 2025 at 3:06 pm ET: Clarified language.



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TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram

Bessie Liu

A first governance vote has concluded on TON.Vote — a new on-chain governance voting solution built exclusively for the The Open Network (TON) ecosystem — with 1,726 voters using 1.7 million TON tokens to determine whether to freeze inactive mining wallets.



The community identified 204 inactive mining wallets in December last year, and called for miners to activate their inactive wallets before the start of the new year.&nbsp;



As of Feb. 14, 2023, 182 remained inactive, roughly 0.009% of the total number of wallets on TON.



“These mining wallets — the genesis wallets which have mined Toncoin directly from the Proof-of-Work smart contracts — have never been activated and do not have a single outgoing transfer in their history,” the proposal <a href="https://ton.vote/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



With 91% of community members <a href="https://ton.vote/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voting</a> in favor of freezing these wallets, this means roughly $1.08 billion of Toncoin’s total circulating supply of $5.05 billion — roughly 20% — will be locked for four years.



“This will give the TON ecosystem enough time to flourish while providing flexibility to those who may not be aware of these discussions in the community,” it said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TON freeze vote debuts new governance voting platform</h2>



This proposal was the first one to be successfully conducted on TON’s new governance voting platform.



The TON Foundation and Orbs, a blockchain interoperability company, established TON.Vote to make decentralized governance more transparent and democratized on the network.



TON.Vote relies on <a href="https://www.orbs.com/how-to-choose-an-orbs-guardian/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Orbs Guardians</a> to verify voting accuracy, a public network of permissionless validators on the Orbs network.



Similar to other voting platforms — TON.vote requires users to connect their wallets and use their tokens to weigh in on proposals. TON.vote is currently compatible with Tonkeeper, OpenMask, MyTonWallet, TonSafe, Tonhub, and TON Wallet.



Although voting is limited through TON transactions at the moment, it has plans to change to participation through wallet signatures in the near future. NFT voting will also be possible in the future, the company said.



“We see governance as a core component of any healthy decentralized community, and as such, we worked with the TON foundation as our design partner to create a decentralized governance platform,” Orbs’ Ran Hammer told Blockworks.



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TON Governance Votes To Freeze 20% of TON Supply

Macauley Peterson

In a sea of red since FTX bankruptcy’s, the native cryptoasset of The Open Network (TON) has been a standout.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Up around 50% since just Nov. 10, the layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain progeny of Telegram — the messaging app wildly popular among industry participants — sits ahead of the more-familiar names of Chainlink and Cosmos in terms of market capitalization. That’s even after accounting for a 30% retracement from its recent peak notched Dec. 19.&nbsp;



TON’s latest bullish indicator: a fresh $10 million injection earmarked for building out the blockchain’s infrastructure from Cypher Capital, a multi-strategy crypto investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).



The funding builds upon an earlier $126 million “rescue fund,” <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/30/ton-steward-looks-to-draw-projects-to-its-ecosystem-with-126m-rescue-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debuted</a> last month to support TON development, then-described as “a soft commitment … ready to deploy whenever there’s a suitable opportunity that is in need of support from the TON community.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Newly committed funds are set to focus on applications in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Turkey, and India, according to Bill Qian, chairman of Cypher Capital and a board member of the TON Foundation, who in a statement called the network “a game changer in the Web3 space.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Telegram connection&nbsp;</h3>



The bull case for TON leans heavily on its association with Telegram and its <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/telegram-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimated</a> 55 million monthly active users.



Though the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-users-can-now-send-receive-crypto-following-2-year-hiatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC in 2019</a> shut down the messenger’s in-house crypto effort, the app remains a major player in the community-forked initiative that relaunched the project in a more decentralized manner.



Telegram service fragment.com, for instance, offers an auction-style marketplace for Telegram usernames, which, unsurprisingly, uses the TON blockchain and corresponding payment token.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“The auction of usernames or anonymous numbers on Telegram is a great demonstration of how the simplicity of tokenization on TON can create many real-world examples of blockchain technology,” a TON spokesperson told Blockworks.
</blockquote>



Transaction fees for such services are paid in TON, the network&#8217;s staking token used to incentivize the validators that process transactions.



Other applications in search of user growth are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-wallet-now-lets-users-exchange-crypto-with-each-other" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the @Wallet bot</a> and a privacy-focused TON Proxy service that can access websites through the network’s own DNS service — analogous to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ens" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum Name Service</a>.



The spokesperson was unable to provide details on the number of such sites created, but said “we believe that this product is in demand within the community, and it is something that we will continue to develop when TON Storage launches,” referring to TON’s equivalent to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/storage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decentralized storage</a> providers such as IPFS or Arweave.



The @Wallet bot within Telegram was used by 1.7 million users in the past year, according to the TON Foundation. Although the bot is a custodial wallet service, it is not operated by Telegram, but rather maintained by independent TON developers.



Non-custodial wallets are also available, namely Tonkeeper, which runs as a standalone mobile app co-founded by TON Foundation “ambassador” Oleg Andreev.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">TON bridge to Ethereum-based dapps</h3>



TON’s treasury is not tracked by <a href="https://openorgs.info/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Openorgs.info</a>, but the TON foundation <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-users-can-now-send-receive-crypto-following-2-year-hiatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said in April</a> it had raised about $1 billion to fund development efforts. TON currently trades for about the same as it did at the time — $2.00 even as of the stock market’s close in New York on Wednesday.



The TON Foundation describes itself as “a non-commercial group of supporters and contributors who help further grow the TON blockchain&#8221;. Founding members include Steve Yun and Andrew Rogozov, ex-CEO of Russian social networking site VK.com.



TON recently gained coverage on <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/TON" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DefiLlama</a> thanks to a decentralized exchange with about $500,000 in total value locked (TVL).



The Foundation provides <a href="https://ton.org/primer.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a bridge</a> to allow TON holders to interact with decentralized applications (dapps) built on Ethereum, such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/Uniswap" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a>.



Around 19.2 million TONCOIN — the ERC-20 token <a href="https://etherscan.io/token/0x582d872a1b094fc48f5de31d3b73f2d9be47def1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">representing TON on Ethereum</a> — have been bridged so far, with around $38.5 million held by around 4,900 wallets. About 78% of that amount is concentrated in the top 10 such accounts, including venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital, with 25% of the supply on Ethereum.



It’s not clear what percentage of Telegram users have tried services on the TON blockchain, but data provided by <a href="https://tontech.io/stats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tontech.io</a> point to steady growth in accounts on the network, which surpassed 1.6 million in December. The number of active users was not available as of publication. 



Updated Dec. 30, 2022 at 6:42 am ET: Clarified Yon and Rogozov&#8217;s status as Ton Foundation founding members.



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Bucking Crypto Bear Trend, Telegram Progeny Promises a Ton

<div id="highlights-block_dc57bf2e467ef6dd99f857a7be95c787" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Buyers can use USD, EUR, UAH, BYN and KZT to purchase cryptocurrencies</li>
 <li>Only toncoin (TON) and bitcoin (BTC) can be purchased for now and only TON can be transferred via chat messages</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Developers behind the Telegram @Wallet Bot, which allows Telegram users to purchase cryptocurrencies with a bank card, exchange and transfer to other wallets, have launched a P2P cryptocurrency exchange.



The Wallet Bot <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/telegram-users-can-now-send-receive-crypto-following-2-year-hiatus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched in April</a>, allowing Telegram users to buy toncoin (TON) and send it within chat messages. The latest update will allow sales of cryptocurrencies between users through the Telegram app, with the exchange services acting as guarantors for each transaction. In any case of disagreement between the seller and the buyer, the service will conduct a dispute resolution process.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-seed-phrases">What Are Seed Phrases and Are They Needed? The New Debate</a>



The service is pitched as offering “anonymous P2P deals,” however, users must share their mobile phone number with the bot in order to deposit, exchange or purchase crypto.



Users who wish to sell cryptocurrencies will be paying a 0.9% commission, while buyers will not need to pay any fees, according to a statement by developers of the @Wallet bot.



To sell tokens, users will post notices in the app, which buyers can then select from. Buyers can use USD, EUR, UAH, BYN and KZT to purchase cryptocurrencies.&nbsp;



Toncoin (TON) and bitcoin (BTC) are available for purchase at the moment, with plans to increase the offering at a later date, according to the company. Only TON is able to be sent between users directly through chats.



“It is aimed towards ordinary users and provides a low entry threshold for learning about blockchain. Many services on TON are similar to the usual applications that people are already used to using,” a TON Foundation representative told Blockworks.



&#8220;Without leaving Telegram you can buy cryptocurrency, send it to your friends using a short nickname without long wallet addresses, get access to the internet with the @mobile bot, pay for a subscription to your favorite Telegram channel along with many other services,&#8221; the representative said.



The TON blockchain that was originally founded by the Durov brothers, the founders of Telegram Messenger. Telegram previously intended to launch an official token, GRAM, but was <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-146" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prevented from doing so</a> by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020, forced to return $1.2 billion raised for the project to investors and pay an $18.5 million fine.



The TON Foundation “is a decentralized community started by Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko after Telegram stepped away from the project,” <a href="https://ton.org/en/community" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to its website</a>.



“One of the goals is to merge blockchain technology with the traditional internet,” the spokesperson said. “In order to further this decentralized concept, TON is creating its own ecosystem, which already includes DNS, sites, and proxies.”



The total number of custodial wallet accounts has grown to 1.3 million according to <a href="https://tontech.io/stats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a stats page</a> provided by the group, however the <a href="https://toncoin.tonscan.io/accounts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ton Scan block explorer</a> was not displaying any information as of press time.



The <a href="https://t.me/s/toncoin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TON community Telegram group</a> has 630,000 subscribers.



The TON token is trading at $1.39 as of 9:00 am ET, with a market capitalization of about $1.7 billion and circulating supply of 1.22 billion TON, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/toncoin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a> CoinMarketCap.



Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.



This story was updated on Oct. 4 at 10:09 am ET.



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Telegram @Wallet Bot Now Lets Users Exchange Crypto With Each Other

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_626c01b2a93a8" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The TON Foundation announced Tuesday a new bot for use within social app Telegram, enabling users to send and receive Toncoin to one another</li>
 <li>It marks the first time Telegram has added crypto functionality onto its platform following a bout with the SEC in 2019</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency functionality has been added back into the social app Telegram following a more than two-year hiatus stemming from a lengthy bout with the SEC in 2019.



Users can now send and receive Toncoin, as well as make bitcoin purchases via the app, according to a Tuesday <a href="https://twitter.com/ton_blockchain/status/1518940393370537985?s=20&amp;t=evqVezCJYaL_Bc2JpMOnUw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> by The Open Network (TON) Foundation. Telegram boasts more than 550 million active users and is one of the world&#8217;s most popular social networks.



The foundation is responsible for the development of the TON blockchain which enables the crypto infrastructure for use within the social app. Last week, the foundation announced that it had raised $1 billion in donations to further its development efforts.



Following that announcement, Toncoin rose 14.3% from around $2.03 on Tuesday to $2.32 by Wednesday before succumbing to sell-side market pressure. As of press time, the token is down 10% over a 24-hour period and is changing hands for $2.06, data by provider <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-open-network" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinGecko</a> shows.



Users are not required to pay transaction fees and will no longer need to enter long crypto addresses with wallet functionality embedded into the app, according to the announcement.



It marks the first time the app has restored crypto functionality since its battle with the SEC in October 2019. Telegram abandoned the project shortly after being requested by the securities regulator to cease the sale of its native &#8220;Gram&#8221; tokens. As part of <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-146" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a 2020 settlement</a>, Telegram was required to return the $1.2 billion the company raised in the token sale and ordered to pay an $18.5 million fine.



“Telegram’s active involvement with TON is over,” Telegram founder and CEO <a href="https://telegra.ph/What-Was-TON-And-Why-It-Is-Over-05-12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pavel Durov</a> wrote at the time.



By May 2020, Telegram&#8217;s involvement with TON became less clear, and the development of the TON blockchain was overtaken by various enthusiasts and projects, who forked the original project&#8217;s open-source code.



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