TON — The Open Network: Sub-Second Workchain L1 Built for Telegram
TON (The Open Network) is a Catchain 2.0 BFT proof-of-stake L1 with an infinite-sharding workchain architecture, originally designed by Telegram engineers and now stewarded by the open-source TON community. After the April 2026 Catchain 2.0 upgrade, blocks settle in 400ms with ~1s finality. Typical throughput sits at 17 TPS today, with a theoretical ceiling of 104,715 TPS once workchains are spun up. TVL on TON is $67.06M, but its real heft shows up in stablecoins: $630.47M of USDT-TON circulates inside the Telegram messenger, making TON the ninth-largest USDT host chain.
TON is the only mainstream L1 with a chat-app native distribution layer — Telegram's ~900M users tap a Tonkeeper or @wallet button to hold a non-custodial TON address without leaving the conversation. That distribution explains the protocol mix: Tonstakers LSD holds $140.5M, STON.fi DEX runs $28.4M, EVAA lending sits at $10.8M, and Storm Trade pushes perps directly into Telegram mini-apps. The chain itself is built around two ideas most peers don't share. First, an asynchronous actor-style smart-contract model in the TON Virtual Machine (TVM) — contracts pass messages instead of making synchronous calls, which is why TON can shard horizontally without a global mempool bottleneck. Second, an infinite-sharding paradigm: workchains can split into shardchains on demand and merge back when load drops, all coordinated by the Masterchain. The cost is a steeper learning curve — Func/Tact replace Solidity, addresses are Base64url-encoded with workchain prefixes (workchain:account), and bridging USDT-TON to or from EVM rails requires a routed cross-chain swap. AllSwap's non-custodial router quotes those routes with TON's 1-second finality factored into the settlement clock, so funds land before the next Telegram message refreshes.
About TON
TON's genesis is unusual: it was incubated inside Telegram as the Telegram Open Network in 2018, abandoned in 2020 after the SEC blocked the $1.7B Gram token sale, then resurrected by independent developers as Free TON and re-branded The Open Network. Mainnet launched on May 7, 2020 under fully open-source governance through the TON Foundation. The codebase, validator set, and treasury have been community-stewarded since day one, which is why Telegram itself does not technically own or run the network — it merely integrates TON's wallet rail into its messaging app, giving the chain access to a distribution surface no other L1 has.
Consensus is provided by Catchain 2.0, a BFT proof-of-stake protocol that finalizes blocks in approximately 1 second after a 400ms block time. The April 2026 Catchain 2.0 upgrade halved both numbers from the previous 5s block / ~6s finality regime, putting TON's confirmation latency on par with Solana's 12.8s slot finality and inside Sui's 0.64s Mysticeti window. Validators stake TON to run nodes for the Masterchain and any active workchain; the multi-chain workchain architecture means TON is not a single linear chain but a tree — one Masterchain coordinates state across up to 2^32 workchains, each of which can dynamically split into 2^60 shardchains. This is the infinite-sharding paradigm; in practice today only one EVM-style workchain operates, which is why typical throughput is 17 TPS rather than the theoretical 104,715 TPS ceiling.
Smart contracts run on the TON Virtual Machine (TVM), a register-based stack machine with native support for asynchronous message passing. Unlike EVM where one transaction synchronously calls many contracts in a single atomic block, TON contracts communicate via messages that may settle one or more blocks later. This is the architectural choice that makes sharding tractable — contracts on different shards exchange messages without locking global state — but it forces developers to design with eventual consistency in mind. Fungible tokens follow the Jetton standard (not ERC-20-compatible) and NFTs follow TIP-4. The primary smart-contract languages are FunC (low-level) and Tact (a higher-level Func-derivative); Solidity does not run on TON without a transpilation layer.
Economically, TON is a deflationary-leaning PoS network. The native token TON pays for gas, validator stake, and TON DNS / TON Storage / TON Proxy fees. Total TVL across DeFi protocols sits at $67.06M today, modest versus Solana's $4.71B or Hyperliquid's $1.51B, but TON's defining economic footprint is stablecoins: $630.47M of USDT-TON (0.34% of all USDT in circulation) lives on the chain, primarily moving through Telegram's @wallet and Tonkeeper for peer-to-peer transfers. That stablecoin density — far in excess of what the on-chain DeFi TVL would suggest — is why TON behaves more like a payments network than a yield-farming venue.
TON technical parameters
TON's technical stack is a clean break from the EVM lineage that dominates most L1/L2 chains. Three design decisions define it: Catchain 2.0 BFT for consensus, the TVM with asynchronous message-passing semantics, and an infinite-sharding workchain tree. Each was chosen specifically to scale horizontally without giving up Byzantine fault tolerance — a different trade-off from Solana's monolithic high-clock-speed approach or Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap.
| Consensus | Catchain 2.0 BFT (PoS, multi-chain workchain architecture) |
|---|---|
| VM | TVM (TON Virtual Machine) |
| Block time | 400 ms |
| Finality | 1 s |
| TPS | 17 typical / 104.7k max |
| Gas token | TON |
| Launched | 2020-05-07 |
| Token standard | Jetton (FT) / TIP-4 NFT |
| Address | Base64url / hex (workchain:account) |
Consensus mechanism
Catchain 2.0 is a BFT proof-of-stake protocol where validators are assigned to validate either the Masterchain or one or more workchains based on their stake weight. A subset of validators forms a 'catchain' — a directed acyclic graph of message-passing rounds — that proposes and signs blocks. After the April 2026 upgrade, a block is produced every 400ms and reaches absolute finality in approximately 1 second once two-thirds of stake-weighted validators sign. This is significantly faster than Ethereum L1's 12s slots and 768s economic finality, and roughly matches Solana's 400ms slot time while delivering finality 12x faster than Solana's 12.8s. The defining feature versus its sub-second-finality L1 peers is the workchain split: validators on the Masterchain do not need to execute every workchain block — they only need to verify cryptographic commitments — which is what allows TON to scale horizontally as load grows rather than vertically by demanding faster validator hardware. The trade-off is that with only one active workchain today, TON's realized throughput (17 TPS) is below peers like Solana (3,000 TPS typical) until additional workchains are activated.
Performance context
Read the 17 TPS typical against the 104,715 TPS theoretical ceiling with care — both numbers are real, and the gap measures unused workchain capacity, not a benchmarking gimmick. Today, ordinary Jetton transfers (USDT-TON between two Telegram users) confirm in roughly 1 second at a cost of ~0.005 TON. That puts TON's user-perceived speed inside the same envelope as Aptos (0.65s finality), Sui (0.64s), and Monad (1s), and meaningfully ahead of Solana's 12.8s economic finality. Where TON falls behind today is composability — the asynchronous message model means a multi-hop DeFi route may settle across 2-3 blocks (2-3 seconds) rather than landing in a single atomic transaction the way it would on EVM.
TON ecosystem map
TON's $67.06M DeFi TVL is dominated by liquid staking and a small but functional DEX/lending stack — a distinct shape from EVM ecosystems where DEXes typically outweigh LSDs. The driver is Telegram-native UX: most TON users entered through @wallet or Tonkeeper rather than through DeFi yield-chasing, so staking TON for yield (rather than farming volatile pairs) is the dominant on-chain activity. The notable protocols below cover every category a swap user needs.
Infrastructure
Tonstakers LSD ($140.5M TVL) is by far the largest protocol on TON and the dominant liquid staking token. It accepts TON deposits and returns tsTON, a yield-bearing receipt token used as collateral across the rest of the DeFi stack. Stakee ($24.2M) and UTONIC ($4.8M) are smaller competing LSDs.
DEX
STON.fi ($28.4M TVL) is TON's largest spot DEX and the primary liquidity venue for Jetton swaps including USDT-TON, NOT, DOGS, and TON-paired pools. TONCO ($6.9M) offers concentrated-liquidity v3-style pools, and DeDust ($5.2M) provides AMM pools — together STON.fi + DeDust route the majority of TON-native swap flow.
Lending
EVAA Protocol ($10.8M TVL) is TON's primary money market, offering supply/borrow for TON, USDT-TON, and tsTON. EVAA is positioned similarly to Aave on EVM chains but uses TON's asynchronous message model, which changes how liquidations cascade — they settle in 1-2 blocks rather than atomically.
Derivatives
Storm Trade ($5.6M TVL) runs perpetual futures directly inside Telegram mini-apps, letting users open leveraged positions without leaving the messenger. It is the closest TON analog to Hyperliquid or GMX but distributed through Telegram's native surface rather than a standalone web app.
Wallet
Tonkeeper, TON Wallet, Tonhub, @wallet (Telegram's built-in custodial-then-self-custody wallet), MyTonWallet, and Ledger all support TON. The Telegram-integrated @wallet is the gateway for most newcomers; Tonkeeper is the dominant fully non-custodial mobile choice.
Bridge
The official TON Bridge, plus integrations with Symbiosis, Orbiter, and intent-based routers, move USDT-TON and TON itself between TON and EVM/Solana ecosystems. AllSwap's non-custodial cross-chain swap layer integrates these routes and quotes them in a single click without requiring users to handle bridge UX directly.
| # | Protocol | Category | TVL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tonstakers LSD | Liquid Staking | $140.50M |
| 2 | STON.fi | Dexs | $28.42M |
| 3 | Stakee | Liquid Staking | $24.24M |
| 4 | EVAA Protocol | Lending | $10.79M |
| 5 | TONCO | Dexs | $6.92M |
| 6 | Storm Trade | Derivatives | $5.56M |
| 7 | DeDust | Dexs | $5.24M |
| 8 | UTONIC | Liquid Staking | $4.77M |
TON vs peers
TON's peer set is the high-speed L1 category — Solana, Aptos, Sui, Monad, Berachain, Hyperliquid L1, and Near. All seven chains target sub-second-to-low-second finality. Where TON differentiates is the combination of three things no peer shares simultaneously: Telegram-native distribution, asynchronous workchain sharding, and a non-EVM, non-Move VM (TVM with FunC/Tact). The numerical comparison below uses live data from the comparisons dataset.
| Chain | Block | Finality | TPS | TVL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solana | 400 ms | 12.8 s | 3k | $4.71B |
| Aptos | 150 ms | 650 ms | 800 | $191.04M |
| Sui | 400 ms | 640 ms | 1.5k | $434.58M |
| Monad | 400 ms | 1 s | — | $348.38M |
| Berachain | 2 s | 2 s | — | $55.48M |
| Hyperliquid L1 | 70 ms | 70 ms | — | $1.51B |
| TONcurrent | 400 ms | 1 s | 17 | $67.06M |
| Near | 600 ms | 1.2 s | 60 | $141.47M |
Comparison insights
- TON's 1-second finality matches Monad's 1s and beats Solana's 12.8s economic finality by a 12x margin, while sitting slightly behind Aptos (0.65s) and Sui (0.64s). For a user perspective: a TON transfer confirms before a Solana transfer reaches economic finality, but slightly after an Aptos or Sui transfer.
- TVL ranks TON at $67.06M, ahead of Berachain ($55.5M) but well behind Near ($141.5M), Aptos ($191.0M), Monad ($348.4M), Sui ($434.6M), Hyperliquid L1 ($1.51B), and Solana ($4.71B). Pure DeFi capital efficiency is not TON's strong suit today.
- Stablecoin density flips the picture. TON hosts $630.47M of USDT-TON — roughly 66% of Aptos's $953.9M USDT supply despite Aptos having ~3x the on-chain DeFi TVL, and about 25% of Solana's $2.51B USDT supply despite Solana's TVL being 70x larger. TON is a stablecoin payments chain that happens to have DeFi, not the reverse.
- Throughput: TON's typical 17 TPS is the lowest in the peer set today (Solana 3,000, Sui 1,500, Aptos 800, Near 60). The theoretical 104,715 TPS ceiling is genuine but requires multi-workchain activation; current single-workchain capacity has not been a bottleneck because of low demand, not architectural limits.
- VM diversity: TON (TVM with FunC/Tact), Solana (Sealevel SVM with Rust/C), Aptos (Move VM with Move), Sui (Sui Move VM with Sui Move), Monad (EVM-compatible), Berachain (EVM-identical), Hyperliquid (HyperCore + HyperEVM), Near (WASM via NEAR VM) — TON has the highest learning-curve barrier for incoming EVM developers but the cleanest match between its async-actor VM and its sharding model.
TON timeline
TON's history begins in 2018 inside Telegram, where the messenger's founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov designed the Telegram Open Network as a future payments rail for the app's then-200M users. The $1.7B Gram token presale completed in early 2018, but the U.S. SEC sued Telegram in October 2019 alleging unregistered securities. By May 2020 Telegram exited the project, returned investor funds, and open-sourced the codebase. Independent developers picked it up, branded it Free TON (later The Open Network), and launched mainnet on May 7, 2020 under the TON Foundation's community governance — Telegram itself holds no protocol control. The 2021-2022 period was quiet on price and TVL but technically active: the Jetton standard for fungible tokens, the TIP-4 NFT standard, and the @wallet Telegram integration all shipped in this window. In 2023 the chain crossed into mainstream awareness when Telegram launched @wallet's self-custody mode and integrated TON as the default chain for in-app crypto, opening a distribution funnel no competing L1 had access to. The 2024 cycle saw Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat — Telegram mini-app tap-to-earn games — drive tens of millions of new TON addresses and a USDT-TON supply surge as players cashed out. April 2026 brought the Catchain 2.0 upgrade, the most significant protocol change since launch: block time dropped from 5s to 400ms and finality from ~6s to ~1s, putting TON in the same latency class as Aptos and Sui. TON has not suffered the high-profile outages that have plagued Solana (multi-hour halts in 2021-2024) or the headline bridge exploits that hit other ecosystems (Ronin's $625M Ethereum-side hack in 2022, the BSC Token Hub incident in October 2022), but it has had smaller incidents — DNS auction front-running, Telegram @wallet UX bugs that confused custodial vs self-custody flows, and occasional validator desynchronization episodes early in the upgrade rollout. The chain remains community-governed, open-source, and operationally distinct from Telegram the company.
- 2020-05-07launchFree TON mainnet launch (community-driven after Telegram exit)
- 2026-04-01upgradeCatchain 2.0 upgrade — 400ms blocks, ~1s finality
Developer reference
TON's developer surface differs meaningfully from EVM. The official RPC endpoint is https://toncenter.com/api/v2/jsonRPC (API-key-rate-limited in production; teams typically run their own ton-http-api node). The canonical block explorer is tonscan.org, with tonviewer.com and getgems.io covering NFT and Jetton flows. Addresses use a Base64url-encoded form with a workchain prefix in the format workchain:account (e.g. 0:abcd... for the main workchain), and the same address has both 'user-friendly' (bounceable/non-bounceable) and 'raw' representations — wallets must handle both. Smart contracts are written in FunC (low-level, C-like with stack semantics) or Tact (higher-level, Solidity-flavored, transpiles to FunC); the tooling stack centers on blueprint, ton-core, ton-crypto, and the @ton/ton TypeScript SDK. The TVM is a register-based stack machine — no Solidity compatibility — and the asynchronous message model means developers design with eventual consistency, not atomic multi-call. Supported wallets for testing include Tonkeeper, TON Wallet, Tonhub, Telegram @wallet, MyTonWallet, and Ledger. Full documentation lives at docs.ton.org.
Assets swappable on TON
Grouped by category. Click any asset to open its swap page for a live quote.
Stablecoins
1 assets
Majors
1 assets
TON settle-time comparison
Shorter bars mean faster confirmations. Real settle time also depends on network congestion — figures are indicative.
TON asset coverage comparison
Longer bars mean more assets are swappable on that chain.
Popular swap routes involving TON
Routes below reflect actual user preference. Click to jump straight to the swap page.
TON FAQ
01Is TON decentralized, or does Telegram control it?
TON is decentralized at the protocol level. Telegram exited the project in May 2020 after the SEC settlement and holds no validator keys, no treasury control, and no governance veto. The mainnet that launched May 7, 2020 was bootstrapped by independent developers under the TON Foundation and runs on a community-operated validator set staking the native TON token via Catchain 2.0 BFT. Telegram does integrate TON wallets (@wallet, Tonkeeper deep links) into the messenger UI, which is a distribution relationship, not a control relationship — the chain would continue operating identically if Telegram removed the integration tomorrow.
02What is TON's finality time, and how does it compare to Solana?
After the April 2026 Catchain 2.0 upgrade, TON reaches absolute finality in approximately 1 second following a 400ms block time. By comparison, Solana's economic finality is ~12.8 seconds (32 slots at 400ms each). TON is therefore roughly 12x faster to finality than Solana, while being slightly slower than Aptos (0.65s) or Sui (0.64s). For practical purposes, a TON transfer between two Telegram users settles before a Solana transfer reaches economic finality.
03Why is TON's typical TPS only 17 when the theoretical ceiling is 104,715?
The gap measures unused workchain capacity, not a benchmarking exaggeration. TON's infinite-sharding architecture allows up to 2^32 workchains, each of which can split into 2^60 shardchains. The 104,715 TPS theoretical figure assumes multiple active workchains running in parallel. Today only one EVM-style workchain handles ordinary user traffic, so realized throughput sits at ~17 TPS — well within current demand. As applications scale, additional workchains can be activated without a protocol upgrade.
04Can I run Solidity contracts on TON?
Not directly. TON's TVM is a register-based stack machine designed for asynchronous message-passing, which is incompatible with EVM's synchronous execution model. Smart contracts are written in FunC (low-level, C-like) or Tact (higher-level, Solidity-flavored). Tact's syntax will feel familiar to Solidity developers but compiles to FunC, and the underlying actor-model semantics — contracts send messages to each other rather than making synchronous calls — require a different mental model. Some projects use transpilers, but production deployments are written natively in FunC or Tact.
05How does TON's address format work, and why are there multiple representations of the same address?
TON addresses are encoded as workchain:account, where workchain is typically 0 (the main workchain) and account is a 256-bit hash. The same address has three common representations: the raw form (0:abcd...), a user-friendly bounceable form (starts with EQ), and a user-friendly non-bounceable form (starts with UQ). Bounceable means a transaction will return the funds if the destination smart contract is not initialized; non-bounceable will let the funds remain at an uninitialized address. Wallets typically default to non-bounceable for transfers between user wallets and bounceable for interacting with smart contracts.