TON trading under Telegram breaks through 1 second; Pavel Durov announces a seven-step strengthening plan

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov announced on Thursday that the TON blockchain has completed a major technical upgrade, boosting overall speed by 10x, increasing the block creation frequency by 6x, and officially enabling sub-second finality on the mainnet starting April 10. Durov also unveiled a seven-step upgrade plan named “Making TON Great Again (MTONGA)”; the next step will further cut transaction fees by 6x.

Technical Upgrade Core: A Structural Leap From 10-Second Finality to Under 1 Second

Before the upgrade, TON’s transaction confirmation time was about 10 seconds. TON’s official statement is clear that this speed cannot support three key use cases: “payments as convenient as sending messages,” transaction execution with no delay, and instant-response mini app (Mini App) interaction experiences.

Sub-second confirmation is defined as a prerequisite for the large-scale deployment of applications within TON’s ecosystem, which has more than 1 billion users on Telegram. In other words, if the confirmation speed cannot align with the interaction tempo of real-time messaging, Telegram’s plans for embedded payments and on-chain applications will face fundamental user-experience bottlenecks.

Catchain 2.0 increases block creation frequency by 6x through optimizing the block proposal and confirmation process. With it, overall transaction throughput benefits as well—this is the underlying technological core of this upgrade.

MTONGA Plan: Known Progress in a Seven-Step Roadmap

Pavel Durov, under the name “Make TON Great Again (MTONGA),” announced a seven-step upgrade roadmap. The first two steps that are currently known are:

Known Steps in the MTONGA Plan

Step 1 (completed): The mainnet achieves sub-second finality, boosting overall speed by 10x, driven by Catchain 2.0

Step 2 (to be rolled out): Further reduce the transaction fees, which are currently at a relatively low level, by 6x

The remaining five steps have not yet been公布 in full detail, but based on Durov’s wording, the subsequent steps are expected to keep strengthening areas around network performance, ecosystem economics, and user adoption.

Economic Benefits and Staking Incentives: The Upgrade’s Positive Chain Reaction

TON’s official statement says that this speed upgrade also brings structural improvements on the network economics layer. An increased block creation frequency means more blocks are produced per unit of time, which in turn leads to higher validator rewards and more attractive return incentives for staking participants. This mechanism helps attract more nodes to join validation, strengthening TON’s decentralization and long-term security.

TON’s Development Journey: From SEC Investigation to Open-Source Community Takeover

Telegram began exploring blockchain technology as early as 2018, but related plans were forced to be halted under the pressure of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2022, the open-source developer community pushed the project forward again and continued developing it under the name “The Open Network (TON).” TON currently operates as blockchain infrastructure for the Telegram ecosystem, providing technical support for mini app and payment scenarios within the platform. It is nominally independent of Telegram, but maintains a close ecosystem connection with that platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does sub-second finality mean in terms of user experience?

Sub-second finality means that after transactions are broadcast to the network, irreversible finality is completed in less than 1 second. Compared with the previous waiting time of about 10 seconds, this makes TON’s transaction experience closer to the response speed of real-time messaging, providing the necessary technical foundation for instant payments, on-chain interactions, and mini apps within Telegram.

How does Catchain 2.0 drive this TON upgrade?

Catchain 2.0 is the latest version of TON’s consensus mechanism. By optimizing the block proposal and confirmation process, it increases block creation frequency by 6x and boosts overall transaction speed by 10x. These are the core technology engines behind the mainnet sub-second finality upgrade.

When will the remaining steps of the MTONGA plan be announced?

Pavel Durov has already confirmed the first two steps: sub-second finality (completed) and a 6x reduction in fees (to be rolled out). The remaining five steps have not been fully disclosed yet. Durov said subsequent releases will continue, and the market expects that later steps will cover ecosystem expansion and stronger developer tools.