Telegram just stopped pretending it wasn’t running the show. The messaging giant officially took over primary operational control of the $TON blockchain on May 4, replacing the $TON Foundation as the network’s main operator. The market’s response was swift and unambiguous: Toncoin surged 36% within 24 hours, hitting $1.80, a four-month high.
Telegram is now the largest validator on the network, staking approximately 2.2 million $TON. Transaction fees have been slashed to roughly 0.00039 $TON, which Telegram says is about six times lower than previous levels. That rate holds regardless of network congestion.
By becoming the largest validator, Telegram gains direct influence over block production and network governance. This is a messaging platform with over 900 million users becoming the backbone of its own blockchain infrastructure.
Durov’s vision: tech superiority first
Founder Pavel Durov framed the takeover around a concept he called “tech superiority.” In practical terms, that means new developer tools, performance upgrades, and a complete redesign of the Ton.org website, all promised within a two-to-three-week window.
Earlier, the company mandated that all existing non-$TON Mini Apps migrate to the $TON network by February 21, 2025. That deadline functioned as a forcing mechanism, ensuring that the app ecosystem building inside Telegram’s platform would route through $TON rather than competing chains.
What this means for investors
The 36% price surge tells you the market likes this narrative. Telegram’s 900 million users represent a distribution advantage that almost no other blockchain project can match. The fee reduction also removes a common friction point. At roughly 0.00039 $TON per transaction with no congestion premium, micro-transactions become viable in ways they aren’t on chains where fees spike unpredictably.
On the risk side, Telegram becoming the largest validator on a blockchain it effectively controls creates a single point of failure. There’s also the Pavel Durov factor. Durov’s legal history, including his arrest in France in 2024, highlights a real concentration of key-person risk.
The next two to three weeks will be telling. Durov’s promised developer tools and site redesign will either validate the “tech superiority” framing or expose it as marketing language.