Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the TON (TON) blockchain is now 10 times faster after an upgrade that cuts transaction confirmation to under one second.
TON's Catchain 2.0 Upgrade
Durov announced on Apr. 9 that the network's new consensus mechanism, dubbed Catchain 2.0, had gone live. Blocks now generate every 400 milliseconds — six times faster than the previous rate. A streaming layer also pushes updates to apps nearly instantly, rather than forcing them to wait for the next block cycle.
Before the upgrade, users waited more than five seconds for transaction finality. That gap made on-chain payments and trading feel sluggish compared with conventional apps.
"Transactions are now instant, subsecond," Durov said.
He framed the overhaul as step one of a seven-part plan called "Make TON Great Again," or MTONGA. Step two will cut transaction fees by six times. Durov has not disclosed a timeline for the remaining five steps.
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TON vs. Solana Fee Comparison
The upgrade arrives as Layer 1 networks compete aggressively for users and stablecoin traffic. TON currently ranks 14th among the fastest blockchains. Its average transfer cost sits at roughly $0.00315, while Solana (SOL) charges about $0.00201 — making Solana roughly 40% cheaper.
If MTONGA's planned fee reduction goes through, TON would become approximately 3.5 times cheaper than Solana. That gap could matter for micropayments and stablecoin transfers, where fractions of a cent shape user behavior.
TON Activity Decline Since 2024
Despite Durov's ambitions, on-chain activity has fallen sharply. DEX volumes on TON dropped from $1.4B at their 2024 peak to $26M as of Apr. 2026. Total value locked declined from a record $766M to $55M over the same period. Ethereum (ETH) still dominates stablecoin settlement, though cheaper alternatives like Tron (TRX), Solana, BNB Chain (BNB), and now TON have been chipping away at its share.
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