Overview
- Telegram, which announced the change Monday, said it will replace the TON Foundation and serve as the network’s largest validator, and Toncoin rose as much as 30% in 24 hours.
- Becoming the top validator means Telegram will help confirm transactions, earn staking rewards, and hold significant sway over protocol choices, tying its core business to the chain.
- Recent upgrades cut block times from about 2.5 seconds to roughly 400 milliseconds through Catchain 2.0 and lowered typical fees about sixfold to near $0.0005, enabling sub‑second finality.
- Pavel Durov said refreshed ton.org, new developer tools, and further performance updates are planned in two to three weeks, and a transition audit in June is expected to assess the handover.
- TON’s scale is growing fast, with about 1.5 billion transactions in Q1 2026 and roughly $1.2 billion locked in apps by April, and traders pushed TON-based meme tokens sharply higher after the news.