Durov’s MTONGA, fee cuts and validators spark TON’s 100% rally
TON rose more than 100% in a week after Pavel Durov launched MTONGA, deployed Telegram-backed validators and reduced fees, driving higher staking and swap volume.
The TON token gained over 100% in the past week after Pavel Durov announced the MTONGA initiative, Telegram launched several validators and the network cut transaction fees. These actions coincided with a surge in staking and trading inside the Telegram ecosystem.
Durov said he would take a more active role in developing the TON blockchain and integrating it with Telegram. Telegram subsequently deployed several dozen validators that have staked more than 100 million TON. Network fees for transactions were reduced in the same period.
On-chain trading data show a large increase in activity. Daily swap volume on STON.fi rose to more than $40 million from roughly $1.5 million a week earlier, an increase of more than 26 times. Observers report that a growing share of traffic is occurring inside wallets, bots, mini-apps and games that embed TON payments and exchanges within Telegram.
Kirill Pistsov, head of product development at FINAM, attributed the market response to Durov’s announcement of more direct network management and the role of a major validator. He noted that lower fees can encourage higher user and developer activity on the network.
Alexander “RocketMan” Shepelev, founder of xRocket, observed that the community had awaited concrete action after a period of stalled projects and said Durov’s involvement appears to have revived momentum. Shepelev also said validators funded by Telegram gifts increased the company’s TON holdings and that staking those tokens and running validators made sense rather than selling immediately.
Andrey Fedorov highlighted infrastructure improvements, saying the spike in swap volume indicates the network is beginning to handle larger loads. He pointed to stress testing that included meme-coin traffic and described a pattern where liquidity and transaction execution happen in the background while users interact with familiar Telegram interfaces.
Concerns about centralization and short-term volatility were raised by market participants. Shepelev acknowledged the setup could increase token concentration but expressed no expectation that the validators would be used to manipulate rates. Pistsov warned the rapid price rise includes a strong speculative component and that a local correction remains likely.
Market participants said the coming weeks will show whether higher volumes and the expanded validator set lead to sustained growth in daily users and developer activity or whether recent speculative flows cause price corrections.
