Telegram founder Durov: Will take over TON within 2-3 weeks; Telegram will become the largest validator

Telegram founder Pavel Durov on May 4 announced on his personal Telegram channel that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation within 2 to 3 weeks, becoming the main driver and the largest validator of the TON blockchain. This is the 3rd step of Durov’s “Make TON Great Again” (MTONGA) 7-step plan; the first two steps were already rolled out in April.

MTONGA Step 3: Telegram directly takes over network governance and validation

Durov wrote: “TON fees have dropped to almost zero; the next step is for Telegram to replace TON Foundation as the driving force behind TON and become its largest validator. The focus shifts to technological leadership—new ton.org, new developer tools, and new performance upgrades. Timeline is 2 to 3 weeks. This is step 3 of Make TON Great Again, out of 7.”

The key signal here is governance—TON Foundation in the past was a centralized-led nonprofit organization governing TON, while Telegram itself kept its distance to avoid securities controversies with the U.S. SEC (the SEC forced termination of TON’s original 2018 ICO plan). Now that Telegram publicly declares it will “directly take over,” it suggests that the parent company’s risk appetite has changed, possibly linked to the U.S. regulatory framework loosening its stance toward crypto projects after 2025.

First two steps: Catchain 2.0 and a 6x cut in fees

Step 1 landed on April 9—Catchain 2.0 upgrade went live, block time fell to about 400 milliseconds, throughput improved by about 10x, and finality moved into sub-second territory. Durov then claimed TON is “now 10x faster,” with block speed up 6x.

Step 2 was completed in the following weeks—per-transaction fees dropped by about 6x from the original level, down to 0.00039 TON (about $0.0005), and the fee rate is fixed regardless of network load. Durov said most transactions would ultimately move to zero fees.

Significance for the TON ecosystem and Telegram’s business model

Telegram taking over TON governance, together with April Revolut opening TON memecoins to 70 million users, signals a deeper integration of “Telegram’s 950M user ecosystem × TON blockchain” into a new phase. For Telegram’s business model, this route has more potential than relying on advertising or paid subscriptions—directly distributing value from on-chain activity to the “largest validators” (i.e., Telegram itself).

Key areas to watch next are: (1) the specific legal arrangements for Telegram to replace TON Foundation (dissolving the foundation, job transfers, or retaining specific functions); (2) the real-world effect of the new ton.org and developer tools within 2 to 3 weeks; (3) the content of the remaining 4 steps in the roadmap, and whether Durov will publish the complete 7-step blueprint before mid-year.

This article “Telegram founder Durov: Take over TON in 2-3 weeks; Telegram will become the largest validator” first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.