From 2018 onward, Telegram and TON travelled the road from the SEC-blocked Gram ICO to the moment Pavel Durov officially declared Telegram the network’s main validator. This piece is a structured catalogue of every contact point between the two ecosystems as of May 2026: what already works, where money flows through and where the centre of gravity of integration sits today.
A short timeline
- 2018–2020. The Telegram team builds TON, runs the Gram ICO, loses the SEC dispute and hands development to an independent community.
- 2021–2022. Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet emerge; Fragment launches for username and anonymous-number auctions.
- 2023. Telegram declares TON the official blockchain infrastructure of the messenger. Ad-revenue sharing opens.
- April 2024. Tether and Telegram launch USDT natively on TON.
- January 2025. TON Connect becomes the exclusive protocol for Telegram Mini Apps.
- November 2025. Native USDT across the entire Telegram Wallet (12 million wallets created in the first 6 hours). Mini Apps reach 500 million MAU.
- 4 May 2026. Durov: Telegram steps in alongside TON Foundation, becomes the largest validator (2.2M TON stake).
A detailed breakdown — in the 2025-2026 retrospective.
Layers of integration — where Telegram meets TON
Integration is multi-layered. It’s useful to split it into four layers — user, infrastructure, economic, protocol.
1. User layer — what an ordinary person sees
Telegram Wallet. A custodial wallet inside the messenger — a separate service licensed in St Vincent, integrated with Telegram officially. Supports TON, USDT-jetton, P2P swaps to RUB/USD/EUR. Fits small amounts. More — in the TON wallets guide.
TON Mini Apps. Apps inside Telegram using TON as the payment and identity layer. Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, thousands of tap-to-earn games, DeFi front-ends, NFT marketplaces. Since January 2025 every Mini App talks to wallets only through TON Connect.
Fragment. Auction venue for unique Telegram usernames (e.g. @news sold in 2022 for $1.7M) and anonymous virtual numbers. Settlements only in TON, platform fee 5%. Since 2024 Fragment also sells Telegram Stars and Premium subscriptions.
Telegram Gifts. Digital gifts in Telegram, many of which ship as NFT collections on TON. In 2025 the Snoop Dogg drop generated $12M; Khabib Nurmagomedov’s collection totalled 29,000 units with peak lots at $30,000.
2. Infrastructure layer — standards and protocols
TON Connect 2.0. Open protocol for connecting non-custodial wallets to Mini Apps and dApps. Uses deeplinks or QR. Since January 2025 — the only standard for Mini Apps in Telegram. Supported by Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet, Tonhub.
Bot payments in TON. An API that lets bots accept TON and USDT-jetton without intermediaries. Minimum fee — a few cents before the April 2026 upgrade and around $0.0005 after the 6× cut.
Notifications and subscriptions. Standard Telegram bots can subscribe to on-chain events (incoming transfers, validator status changes, trading signals). Dozens of services use this combo as a notification channel.
3. Economic layer — who earns and how
The most interesting layer — because the money flows between Telegram and TON are interconnected.
| Stream | Description | Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram Ads (50%) | Share of channel ad revenue | Channel owners with 1,000+ subs, paid in TON |
| Telegram Stars | Virtual currency for digital goods | 100% of Stars go to authors, convertible to TON via Fragment |
| Fragment fees | 5% commission on each auction/direct sale | Telegram (via Fragment) |
| Wallet P2P | Spread on P2P swaps | Wallet by Telegram Wallet |
| Bot payments | Payments via Telegram bots | Bot developers, minus Telegram’s cut |
| Stake rewards (since 2026) | Validator rewards | Telegram (~2.2M TON stake) |
For channel authors the first two streams matter most. The minimum Stars withdrawal is 500 units, and Stars become withdrawable only 21 days after receipt. Conversion to TON then runs through Fragment.
iStars and TON are not the same thing
Stars is Telegram’s internal currency (virtual, not blockchain), TON is real cryptocurrency. There’s a conversion gateway via Fragment, but they’re distinct entities. Stars cannot be “sent to anyone outside Telegram”; TON can.
4. Protocol layer — Telegram as a validator
This is the freshest integration, announced 4 May 2026. Until then Telegram used TON as infrastructure but did not participate in consensus. After Durov’s statement, the messenger:
- launched its own validator node;
- staked roughly 2.2 million TON, making it the number one validator;
- took on tasks from the technical roadmap previously held by TON Foundation (without dissolving the foundation);
- launched the MTONGA initiative (Make TON Great Again) with an updated site, documentation and a promise of rapid upgrades.
Market reaction — Toncoin gained 33.8% in a day, climbing to $1.86. What happened structurally is unlike a typical “partnership”: a company with 950 million active users tied its tech stack to a single blockchain at the consensus level.
What stayed outside the integration
It’s also useful to mark what Telegram deliberately does not do.
- Telegram does not issue its own cryptocurrency. Stars are internal units, not blockchain.
- Telegram does not control TON directly. Legally the chain stays under community and foundation governance. Telegram is a major validator, not the owner.
- Telegram does not open the messenger’s source. Crypto features (Wallet, Mini Apps) are separate products; the messenger remains proprietary.
- Telegram does not technically block other chains. Mini Apps on other networks are technically possible, but TON Connect plus Stars revenue routing in TON make TON the more profitable path.
This careful boundary is part of the legal strategy after the 2020 SEC dispute. More on who decides things inside TON Foundation — in the foundation people article.
What it means for users and developers
If you’re a Telegram user. Crypto features are optional. You can leave them off forever. If you turn them on — pick Wallet for everyday small transfers, and a Tonkeeper + Ledger combo for serious amounts.
Install Tonkeeper
A wallet for those who want TON Connect, Ledger support and access to every dApp in the ecosystem — not just Telegram Wallet.
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If you’re a Mini Apps developer. TON Connect has been mandatory since January 2025. Payments — through bot payments or a direct smart contract. After April 2026 the cost of on-chain operations dropped 6×, which makes 1–10 cent micro-payments economically meaningful.
If you’re a content creator. Telegram Ads revenue (50% of impressions in your channel) is paid in TON. Stars is a separate channel, useful for paid posts and subscriptions. Stars-to-TON conversion runs through Fragment.
What’s next
The roadmap of Telegram-TON integration for the rest of 2026 and into 2027 is a separate topic. Telegram announced accelerated releases, a new website and documentation, AgenticKit, Rust Node v1 and a trustless bridge to Bitcoin (Teleport). Detail — in the ecosystem plans article.
