TON Coin: An Analysis of the Web3 Fundamental Currency in the Telegram Ecosystem

What is TON Coin?

TON (Toncoin) is the native token of The Open Network blockchain. Originally initiated by the Telegram team, this public chain was later taken over and maintained by an independent developer community due to regulatory pressures. Today, TON has evolved into a vital infrastructure connecting social, payment, and blockchain applications.

Unlike other Layer 1 blockchains, TON adopts a unique three-layer architecture of “Main Chain + Multi-Workchains + Sharding Chains,” theoretically supporting up to 2³² workchains, each subdivided into 2⁶⁰ shards, with transaction throughput reaching millions per second. This design gives TON a natural advantage in handling large-scale concurrent transactions.

It is noteworthy that TON uses its self-developed TVM virtual machine and FunC programming language, employs a Proof-of-Stake (BPoS) consensus mechanism, and token holders can participate in network validation and governance through staking. Over 98% of circulating TON tokens originate from the early PoW mining era, adding complexity to its developmental history.

Real-Time Market Overview of TON Coin

According to the latest data (December 2025), the current price of TON Coin is $1.50, with a 24-hour increase of +1.21%. Its all-time high reached $8.25 (June 2024), showing a significant rebound from the all-time low of $0.52. The current market cap is approximately $3.67B, with a circulating supply of 2.453 billion tokens, and a total supply of 5.149 billion tokens.

The number of unique addresses holding TON has surpassed 169 million, but it is important to note that the top 100 addresses hold a concentration of 91.63%, far higher than Bitcoin’s 13.63%, reflecting a centralized distribution characteristic in TON’s early token allocation.

Six Major Uses of TON Coin

1. Network Operation Fees

Any transaction on the TON network—be it transfers, smart contract calls, or NFT minting—requires TON as a fee to reward validator nodes. This is consistent with the operational logic of other public chains.

2. Staking and Network Security

TON employs a Proof-of-Stake mechanism, allowing users to stake TON tokens to validator nodes to help them earn block rewards. Larger staking amounts enhance network security. In return, stakers can earn an annual yield of about 5% (specific rates vary across platforms).

3. Governance Rights

Users holding TON have voting rights over important on-chain matters. The more tokens they hold, the greater their influence, enabling participation in decisions about the network’s development.

4. Core Collateral in DeFi Ecosystem

TON serves as the liquidity backbone for all DeFi applications within the TON ecosystem, supporting trading, staking, liquidity mining, and other financial operations.

5. Payment Hub in the Telegram Ecosystem

This is one of TON’s most distinctive uses. Telegram channel owners can use TON to run advertisements and receive 100% revenue sharing; users can purchase “Stars” digital goods with TON; countless Telegram Bots rely on TON as their economic system foundation. This deep integration makes TON a key link connecting social and payment functions.

6. Cross-Border Transfers and Store of Value

With high speed and extremely low fees, TON is suitable for quick cross-border payments. Many investors also view it as a long-term store of value.

Evolution of TON

2018: Telegram founders Durov brothers launched the project, initially called Telegram Open Network, aiming to build a dedicated blockchain for 1 billion+ users.

2019: TON technical documentation released, two testnets launched. Subsequently, the U.S. SEC sued the project for “unregistered securities issuance,” forcing a pause.

2020: Telegram reached a settlement with the SEC, paying a $18.5 million fine and returning $1.7 billion raised to investors. To preserve project vitality, Telegram opened all tokens for community mining.

2021: Independent developers formed the NewTON team, later renamed TON Foundation. The second testnet was upgraded to mainnet.

2022: TON Foundation announced a $250 million ecosystem fund; PoW mining officially ended, transitioning to PoS; multiple institutions announced support for TON acceleration plans.

2023: Community voting approved tokenomics optimization, freezing inactive wallets for 48 months; TON’s integration with Telegram deepened, with official wallets tightly integrated into Telegram.

2024 to Present: TON wallet integrated within Telegram app, no extra installation needed; ecosystem applications rapidly emerged (USDT integration, mini-apps); token price hit a record high of $8.24, later retraced due to founder-related events; several major exchanges listed TON.

TON Ecosystem Overview

DeFi Layer

• Ston.fi and Dedust.io: Two major AMM exchanges on TON, providing token swaps and liquidity mining
• EVAA Protocol: Over-collateralized lending protocol supporting cross-term funding
• Tonstakers: Liquidity staking protocol, staking TON to earn stTON and participate in other DeFi activities

Payment Wallets

• Tonkeeper: Most popular self-custody wallet supporting buying, sending, receiving TON and DApp interactions
• @wallet Wallet: Embedded directly within Telegram, allowing asset management without leaving the app
• Telegram Stars: Official digital goods payment system, future integration with TON anticipated

Gaming and Social

• Catizen, Hamster Kombat, Notcoin: Popular Telegram mini-games demonstrating Play-to-Earn features with low entry barriers
• NFT Marketplace (Getgems.io) and TON DNS: Complete digital asset trading and identity services

Technical Differences Between TON and Other Public Chains

TON’s uniqueness mainly lies in two aspects:

Resource Payment Mechanism: Unlike Ethereum, where users pay gas fees, TON’s smart contracts hold TON to pay operational costs. This isolates users from fee volatility, but contracts must maintain sufficient balance or risk deletion.

Asynchronous Architecture: Contract calls in TON are asynchronous rather than atomic; cross-contract operations are processed in future blocks. This greatly enhances scalability but complicates DeFi development. Similar to Internet Computer, where platform rather than users pay operational costs. The core advantage of TON is Mass Adoption—not competing on DeFi TVL with chains like Solana.

Economic Model and Risks

TON’s initial total supply was 5 billion tokens, with 98.55% mined by early miners and only 1.45% held by the team. The network has shifted from PoW to PoS, with an annual inflation rate of about 0.6% to reward validators.

In 2023, the community voted to freeze 171 inactive mining wallets for 48 months, holding over 1.081 billion TON (about 21% of total supply at that time). While this reduces circulating supply, a serious risk remains: 91.63% of tokens are concentrated in the top 100 addresses. This indicates extreme reliance on early miners and foundation holdings.

In comparison, Bitcoin’s top 100 addresses hold only 13.63%. Although the community attempts to mitigate inflation by burning half of transaction fees, the daily burn of only 350–400 TON is negligible against an initial issuance of 5 billion.

Investment Strategies and Risk Assessment

Spot Holding

Buying TON directly on major crypto exchanges suits long-term investors. After purchase, transferring to a self-custody wallet (like Tonkeeper) is recommended for security.

On-Chain Participation

• Staking for yields: approximately 5% annual return
• DeFi liquidity mining: providing liquidity on DEXs for trading fee shares
• GameFi and NFTs: participating in ecosystem projects, but beware of early project risks

Notable Risks

Over-reliance on Telegram: If Telegram’s development stalls or changes strategy, TON could face major setbacks.

High token concentration: Large holdings by early miners and foundations could lead to market dumps.

Regulatory uncertainties: Deep integration with communications and payments will attract global regulatory attention; policy evolution remains unpredictable.

Intense ecosystem competition: Needs to compete with high-performance chains like Solana, Sui, and payment solutions like Lightning Network and stablecoins.

Future Outlook for TON

The combination of TON and Telegram demonstrates a unique Web2.5 potential—Telegram’s over 900 million users could make TON the largest on-ramp from Web2 to Web3 if it successfully embeds into payments, tipping, advertising, and Bot ecosystems.

However, key challenges are evident: the enormous holdings of early miners are a “Damocles’ sword.” Future scenarios include:

1. Sacrificing Decentralization: Community votes to permanently freeze whale wallets, reducing sell pressure but turning TON into a low-cost, high-efficiency chain similar to Tron, mainly serving as an asset transfer bridge.

2. Dilution to Balance: Distributing secondary tokens or implementing mechanisms to reduce early holders’ influence, which may harm early interests but foster a healthier ecosystem.

In any case, as the Web3 infrastructure of the Telegram ecosystem, TON’s future depends on whether it can truly attract hundreds of millions of users into the on-chain world—technological advantages are necessary but not sufficient.