Telegram founder Pavel Durov said transaction fees on The Open Network will be cut by 6x within a week, bringing the cost of a transfer down to 0.00039 TON, or about $0.0005 based on the figures cited in his post. He also said that most transactions on TON are expected to become completely free later on.
Durov made the announcement on X on April 23, 2026, U.S. time. In the post, he used the slogan “MTONGA”, short for “Make TON Great Again,” and framed the fee cut as part of a broader technical push to make the network faster and cheaper. He said the new low fee would remain fixed regardless of network load.
Second step in the MTONGA roadmap
The fee reduction is described as step two in a seven-part MTONGA upgrade plan. Step one was completed on April 9 and 10, when TON rolled out the Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade. That change increased block production speed by 6x, shortening it from around 2.4 seconds to about 400 milliseconds, while transaction confirmation moved into sub-second territory.
Step two focuses on lowering costs and is expected to take effect before the end of April. The report says the remaining five steps do not yet have a full public timeline. Their stated direction is to improve scalability and support use cases such as high-frequency micropayments, AI Agents, and DeFi applications.
Zero-fee transactions and tokenomics pressure
The report links the zero-fee push to TON’s attempt to make blockchain activity almost invisible to end users, especially inside Telegram Mini Apps, lightweight games, and everyday micropayments. Telegram’s built-in distribution channel gives TON a strong user funnel. Cost and speed are the focus here.
Still, lower fees introduce tokenomics questions. TON currently burns 50% of transaction fees, with the rest going to validators. If block production accelerates while fees fall sharply, validator incentives may need to be revised. The report notes a possible inflation range moving from 0.6% to 3.6%, pointing to the trade-off between network security and supply control.