TON Foundation’s Head of Growth, Martin Masser, on Thursday said the network’s next phase will extend beyond its tight dependence on Telegram, apparently signaling a shift toward a broader payments and consumer-app infrastructure.
In an interview with Yellow.com, he noted that while TON’s identity has long been defined by Telegram’s distribution, the ecosystem is now preparing for integrations and use cases that do not rely solely on the messaging platform.
Masser said the Foundation expects to reveal new products and partnerships “next year where it’s not necessarily just within Telegram,” positioning TON as a layer that can support applications across different consumer platforms.
TON Is Closing Infrastructure Gaps
This shift follows a year in which TON attracted hundreds of millions of users through mini-apps like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat but struggled to convert Telegram’s 900 million-strong audience into on-chain users.
TON currently records around 11 million monthly active addresses, or roughly 1.2% of Telegram’s base, a gap Masser attributes to onboarding friction, missing infrastructure, and regulatory limitations.
That infrastructure gap is now closing. Masser cited WalletConnect integration, Fireblocks access, and the lifting of restrictions that had previously kept the Telegram wallet out of the U.S. market.
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He said many institutional investors wanted to allocate to TON DeFi earlier in the cycle but were unable to because they lacked compatible tooling.
“They couldn’t access them for specific reasons behind the scenes,” he said, adding that those barriers are now being removed. Cross-chain connectivity is also entering focus.
Beyon Dependence on Telegram
TON’s integrations with Stargate, LayerZero, and a growing list of bridges, including Omniston and other swap aggregators, aim to make stablecoin and asset movement easier for existing crypto users who previously relied on exchanges as intermediaries.
Masser said this was one of the Foundation’s biggest challenges, noting that many users “didn’t know how their USDT could get in” until new bridging paths were added.
The broader strategic question is whether TON will continue to be shaped primarily by Telegram’s growth.
Masser stressed that Telegram is simply TON’s largest distribution channel, not its structural foundation.
Regulatory uncertainties around Telegram have pushed the network to emphasize that it operates independently, and its long-term roadmap includes applications and ecosystem expansions outside the messaging app.
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