The Toncoin (TON) price has surged over 36% within the last day, reaching a peak of $1.80 — its highest in four months, data from CoinDesk shows. This rally is attributed to messaging giant Telegram stepping up as a key player in TON’s ecosystem and reducing transaction fees significantly.
The Open Network (TON), where Toncoin serves as the native token, is a Layer 1 blockchain engineered for integrating cryptocurrency payments and applications within the Telegram platform. The rise has sparked increased interest across the Telegram-linked ecosystem, with Notcoin seeing gains of nearly 26%, Dogs surging over 100%, and several other TON-based tokens witnessing even steeper daily increases.
This market reaction comes after Telegram announced it would replace the Ton Foundation as the main driving force behind TON. In a recent X post, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, declared that the platform will become the largest validator for TON and assume control over its ecosystem. This includes launching new developer tools, performance enhancements, and updating ton.org within two to three weeks.
As validators are crucial in verifying transactions and maintaining blockchain security, Telegram’s move signals a commitment to bolstering the chain’s security and direction, effectively addressing previous concerns about the disconnect between the Telegram vision and TON Foundation execution.
Durov also highlighted that transaction fees on TON have been reduced by six times, nearly reaching zero. Fees are now around 0.00039 TON or approximately $0.0005, with plans to move towards a fee-less model for most transactions. This reduction is particularly significant for Telegram’s distribution of products like on-chain tips, games, bot payments, mini-app transactions, collectibles, and small retail transfers.
While negligible fees may not impact large-scale DeFi users, they can be detrimental to consumer apps where users transact in smaller amounts frequently. By minimizing fixed transaction costs, TON becomes more attractive for high-frequency, low-value interactions, thus enhancing its blockchain appeal among current users.
Telegram’s user base is estimated by various tracking sites to reach up to one billion monthly users, although the company has neither confirmed nor denied these figures. Despite this potential, TON’s fundamentals have not matched the hype in recent years. According to DefiLlama, TON holds just over $69 million in locked value within its decentralized finance applications, a significant drop from its 2024 peak of nearly $800 million. Daily chain fees are about $3,600, daily DEX volume is around $29 million, and app revenue hovers near $134,000.
Tonstat data indicates that TON’s daily active wallet activity is just under 50,000, originating from approximately 136,000 unique wallets. This contrasts with roughly 700,000 daily activities from over 2.2 million wallets recorded in August and September 2024.