TON price jumped nearly 30% after Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the messaging app will take a bigger role in running The Open Network.
Toncoin, the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, jumped almost 30% after Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the messaging app would take a much bigger role in running the blockchain tied to its ecosystem.
CoinGecko data shows TON jumped about 29% on the news to around $1.83, though the token is still roughly 78% below its all-time high.
The move came after Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on X that TON fees have dropped 6x and are now “nearly zero,” adding that the next step is for Telegram to replace the TON Foundation as the driving force behind TON and become “its largest validator.”
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Telegram Becomes Operator
A validator helps run a blockchain, check transactions and keep the network alive. That matters because Telegram on its own has massive distribution.
Durov said in March last year that Telegram had moved above 1 billion monthly active users, though there’s still a big gap between Telegram’s app audience and the number of people actually using TON on-chain.
Durov also said in a separate post on X that TON fees would fall sixfold to 0.00039 TON per transaction, fixed “regardless of network load.” That got mocked because crypto networks often look cheap and smooth until bots or airdrop farmers actually stress them.
In the latest X post, Durov said the focus is now moving to “tech superiority,” with a new website, new developer tools and performance upgrades expected in two to three weeks.
Old Telegram History
It’s unclear why Telegram is stepping closer to TON now, and whether the friendlier tone from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration has anything to do with the timing.
- The TON Foundation, the non-profit steward behind The Open Network, has been the chain’s main public face since Telegram stepped away from its original blockchain project years ago.
- In 2020, Telegram settled with the SEC over its planned Gram token sale, agreeing to return more than $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million civil penalty.
So the latest Durov post reads like a full-circle moment for traders. Telegram once had to back away from the original TON project under regulatory pressure. Now, years later, the messenger appears to be stepping back in through infrastructure, validators, developer tools and network upgrades rather than a fresh token sale.
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