#MTONGA Durov’s Three Steps

In April–May 2026, Pavel Durov has been steadily executing the MTONGA plan — seven steps to transform TON. Three of them have already been completed.

Step 1 — Catchain 2.0 (April 8) Block generation speed increased sixfold, and transaction confirmation time dropped to under one second. For users, this means TON is now comparable in speed to traditional payment systems. The trade-off is that the network began issuing six times more new TON daily. In other words, the circulating supply is growing significantly. A direct consequence was a rise in staking yields to 25–30% annually — previously, they were around 4–5%. As more participants enter staking, yields gradually decline — at the time of writing, major protocols show 17–18% annually.

Step 2 — Fee Reduction (May 1) Transaction fees dropped sixfold to $0.0005 per transaction. Combined with near-instant speed, this makes TON technically suitable for micropayments of any scale — tips for content creators, subscription payments, P2P transfers, and in-app settlements. Durov also announced that, in the future, most user transactions may become free, although the model details have not yet been disclosed.

Step 3 — Telegram Replaces TON Foundation (May 4) Formally, TON has always been positioned as a decentralized blockchain. In practice, its connection to Durov was obvious but unofficial. Now the ambiguity is gone — Telegram is officially taking control of the network, replacing the TON Foundation, and becoming the largest validator. According to blockchain data, Telegram distributed around 200 million TON across 52 validator pools — roughly 37% of the network’s total stake. With such a share, Telegram effectively influences staking yields for other participants — increasing its position pushes yields down, while withdrawing funds pushes them up.

Current State of the Ecosystem The infrastructure has become faster and cheaper, and control has shifted to Telegram. At the same time, real usage metrics remain modest at the time of writing: around 100,000 daily active wallets, approximately $580 million USDT in circulation, and about $1.5 million in daily DEX volume.

Four of the seven steps are still ahead. Given the current pace — Durov indicated a 2–3 week timeframe for the third step — the next announcement can be expected soon.

May 05, 2026 MoonolithCrypto

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