May 4, 2026—Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on his personal channel that TON network transaction fees have dropped by roughly sixfold, reaching near-zero levels. Durov also stated that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation, becoming the primary driving force and largest validator node for the TON network.
Subsequent confirmation revealed Telegram has staked approximately 2.2 million TON tokens to secure the top validator position. Durov framed this move as the third step in the "Make TON Great Again (MTONGA)" seven-step roadmap, and previewed the launch of a new ton.org website, new developer tools, and the next round of performance upgrades within the next two to three weeks.
As of May 15, 2026, Gate market data shows TON trading at about $2.1128, with a 24-hour increase of roughly 1.92%, a 30-day cumulative gain of about 50.06%, and a year-over-year decline of approximately 31.21%. The current circulating market cap stands at around $5.68 billion.
From Technical Upgrades to Governance Restructuring
To fully understand TON’s fee reduction, it’s important to review the network’s technical evolution since 2026. In April 2026, TON mainnet completed the Catchain 2.0 consensus layer upgrade: block generation time was reduced from about 2.5 seconds to roughly 400 milliseconds, and transaction finality dropped from around 10 seconds to just 1 second.
On April 23, Durov previewed a fixed fee rate of "only 0.00039 TON," with most future transactions expected to be completely fee-free. On May 4, the fee reduction and Telegram’s takeover of validator nodes were officially announced. On May 8, Telegram’s staking of approximately 2.2 million TON was formally confirmed.
The full MTONGA seven-step roadmap includes the following known milestones:
| Step | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Catchain 2.0 upgrade, achieving sub-second confirmations | Completed |
| Step 2 | Fees reduced by about sixfold, fixed at 0.00039 TON per transaction | Completed |
| Step 3 | Telegram becomes the largest validator | Completed |
| Steps 4–7 | Not yet disclosed | Pending |
Technical upgrades provide the foundation for fee reduction—only with significantly increased network throughput and continually reduced marginal costs can a near-zero fee economic model remain sustainable, rather than serving as a short-term, security-compromising strategy to attract users.
The Underlying Logic and Comparison of Sixfold Fee Reduction
After the fee cut, TON’s per-transaction cost drops to about $0.0005. With the Catchain 2.0 upgrade, TON’s maximum throughput exceeds 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), and annual inflation rises from about 0.6% to roughly 3.6%.
Cost advantage and business logic: For consumer scenarios where single transactions are only a few dollars, a $0.50 fee can kill commercial viability. TON compresses costs to near zero, making high-frequency, small-scale use cases economically feasible for Telegram’s over 1 billion monthly active users—such as group on-chain tipping, in-game purchases, digital collectibles microtransactions, and everyday micropayments.
Key TON ecosystem data:
| Metric | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Daily active addresses | About 500,000 | Fourth among major L1s |
| Stablecoin volume | About $752 million | Ample on-chain liquidity |
| 24-hour DEX volume | About $39.7 million | May 6 data; May 8 rose to about $41.45 million |
| 24-hour on-chain fees | About $8,086 | Ultra-low fees lead to weak fee capture |
| 24-hour perpetual contract volume | About $1.48 million | DeFiLlama data |
| TON staking APR | About 18.5% | Highest among top 50 crypto assets |
TON’s transaction costs are now among the lowest in the industry. At the same time, the roughly 18.5% staking APR ranks first among the top 50 crypto assets by market cap. These two factors jointly provide core incentives for validators and holders. Perspective: Fees are only one competitive variable; network effects, developer ecosystem, and application diversity also form crucial moats.
Dissecting Public Opinion: Optimistic Narratives vs. Cautious Doubts
Discussions around TON’s fee reduction and Telegram’s validator takeover can be summarized into three main frameworks.
Optimists focus on TON’s potential shift from a "crypto speculation network" to a "consumer-grade payment network." Telegram Wallet CTO Alexander Tobol, in an interview, stated, "Due to retail usage within Telegram, TON could become the blockchain with the most active wallets," and expects the next phase of growth to be driven by bots and mini-app functionality. In April 2026, Grayscale added TON to its Q2 asset watchlist under the smart contract platform category, alongside Hyperliquid, Jupiter, Tron, and others.
Cautious observers focus on on-chain fee data. Current 24-hour on-chain fees are only about $8,086, which doesn’t match the roughly $5.6 billion market cap. Token unlocks are also a concern: According to Messari, the TON Believers Fund unlocks about 36.59 million TON each month, with around 1.098 billion TON still to be released, and the unlocking cycle expected to continue until October 2028. The next planned unlock is valued at about $75 million.
Technical transformation advocates emphasize that the narrative has shifted from "governance disputes" to "infrastructure competition." Storm Trade founder Denis Vasin noted, "If this integration continues, TON will gain what most Layer-1 blockchains lack—native distribution and real user use cases."
#
Industry Impact Analysis: Competitive Variables for Solana and Base
Competition is shifting from pure performance metrics to integrated ecosystem capabilities.
Solana still leads in on-chain transaction volume, active addresses, and DeFi ecosystem maturity. In January 2026, Solana’s daily active addresses surpassed 5 million, daily transaction volume rose from 52 million to about 87 million, and daily fee revenue was around $1.1 million. Base’s daily transaction volume ranges from 9 to 11 million, showing moderate upward momentum.
TON is entering the competition through a differentiated path—leveraging a communications platform with over 1 billion users as its distribution base, rather than relying solely on organic growth of on-chain applications. The key variable: Can Telegram effectively convert user behaviors in messaging scenarios into on-chain economic activity, rather than just providing technical interfaces?
Solana’s structural advantages:
- Absolute leadership in daily transaction volume and active addresses among major blockchains
- Mature DeFi ecosystem with deep DEX and perpetual contract trading
Base’s structural advantages:
- Supported by Ethereum ecosystem and Coinbase user network
- Ongoing integration of zero-knowledge proof technology for enhanced security
- Stable foundation for social and lightweight interactive applications
TON’s differentiated variables:
- Potential onboarding channel for over 1 billion monthly active users, with much lower acquisition costs than other L1s
- Near-zero transaction fees, providing a commercial foundation for high-frequency, low-value scenarios
- Telegram’s direct participation as a validator eliminates the market’s long-standing "strategic commitment uncertainty"
- Staking APR of about 18.5%, offering strong appeal among peer assets
In the short term, TON is unlikely to challenge Solana’s lead in absolute transaction volume and ecosystem maturity. However, differences in fee structure and user distribution model could, in the medium to long term, divert incremental users and developers—especially those focused on consumer-grade micropayments, social gaming, and lightweight DeFi applications.
Institutional Moves and Funding: Signals of Continued Capital Inflow
Since 2026, institutional activity around the TON ecosystem has accelerated noticeably.
On the strategic investment front: AlphaTON Capital completed about $71 million in financing (around $36.2 million in private placements plus roughly $35 million in loan agreements), and has acquired about $30 million worth of TON tokens, making it one of the world’s largest TON holders. The company has established strategic partnerships with BitGo, Animoca Brands, SkyBridge Capital, DWF Labs, and others.
On the ecosystem fund front: The TON Accelerator Program launched a $25 million dedicated fund, offering $50,000 to $250,000 investments per project, backed by TONcoin.Fund. TONcoin.Fund itself is a $250 million TON ecosystem fund.
On the institutional allocation signal front: In April 2026, Grayscale added TON to its Q2 asset watchlist under the smart contract platform category. Some observers see this as a milestone marking TON’s entry into mainstream asset management circles.
These developments indicate that, despite TON’s ecosystem still having room for improvement in on-chain metrics, capital providers are expressing confidence in TON’s long-term growth potential through continued investment.
Conclusion
The combined strategy of reducing TON fees by sixfold and Telegram’s deep integration as a validator essentially tests a core hypothesis: When a public blockchain has a massive user distribution channel, near-zero transaction fees, and strong institutional backing, can it structurally disrupt the current high-performance blockchain competitive landscape?
Current data provides a preliminary but incomplete answer: Fees are now at industry lows, validator governance has achieved strategic alignment, and institutional capital continues to flow in. However, on-chain activity and ecosystem maturity still lag behind Solana and Base, fee capture remains weak (about $8,086 in 24 hours), and token unlock supply pressures (roughly 36.59 million TON per month) have yet to be fully absorbed.
For Solana and Base, the real competitive threat may not be in short-term transaction volumes or TVL being overtaken, but in TON’s construction of a closed-loop logic of "user entry—transaction cost—application scenario." If this closed loop proves effective in the market, the evaluation framework for public blockchains will need to shift from "whose chain is faster" to "whose ecosystem lowers the barrier and cost for users to participate."
TON’s fee reduction is only the beginning. The next critical test is whether lower fees can truly translate into user growth, on-chain revenue, and synchronized expansion of the developer ecosystem.
