Telegram Takes Over TON: Durov Drops Fees, Grabs Validator Seat

 Pavel Durov says TON fees dropped 6x and Telegram is replacing the TON Foundation as its largest validator. New dev tools coming in weeks.

Fees on the TON network just fell off a cliff. Not gradually — six times lower, nearly wiped out. Pavel Durov announced it directly on X, and the next part of that post landed harder than the fee cut itself.

Telegram is stepping in to replace the TON Foundation.

The Foundation Is Out. Telegram Is In.

According to Durov on X, Telegram will take over as the driving force behind TON. Not advising it, not partnering with it. Running it. The messaging app becomes the network’s largest validator — a structural shift that changes who actually controls block production on-chain.

The TON Foundation has operated that seat until now. The handover puts Telegram at the center of a blockchain used by over a billion people.

The official ton.org website now reads “ton.org is now controlled by MTONGA — Expect changes soon.” That message wasn’t there before Durov’s post. The site itself confirms what he described.

Two to Three Weeks

That’s Durov’s timeline. New dev tools, new performance upgrades, and a rebuilt ton.org are all on the way. He framed the focus shift as moving toward “tech superiority” — his words, posted publicly on X without elaboration.

This builds on something the network was already doing. TON’s Catchain 2.0 upgrade earlier in April cut confirmation times from ten seconds to under one second. That was step one of MTONGA — Make TON Great Again — the roadmap Durov laid out publicly. Cutting fees by six times was step two.

Telegram becoming the largest validator is, by most readings, step three.

What Validator Control Actually Means

Validators on TON produce blocks, verify transactions, and earn staking rewards. Whoever holds the largest stake has proportionally more say over network consensus. It’s not absolute control — the network remains distributed — but it’s the kind of weight that makes governance conversations different.

The TON Foundation had been pursuing a $400M treasury through a Kingsway Capital-led PIPE structure before this announcement. What happens to that initiative under the new arrangement isn’t clear. Durov didn’t address it.

He left the post mostly at the facts. “The focus shifts to tech superiority.” That was it.

MTONGA, So Far

The roadmap is moving faster than most expected. Sub-second finality landed in April. Fees collapsed this week. Telegram’s validator position and a site overhaul are coming in two to three weeks, per Durov’s post on X.

Whether the developer tooling lands inside that window will matter more than the validator headline to people actually building on TON. The two aren’t unrelated — Telegram’s direct control likely accelerates what gets shipped and when.

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