TON Foundation

TON Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in Switzerland in 2023. Its goal is to provide financial and media support for the development of TON.

Funding Sources

It is funded by the community, enabling independence and working in the interests of TON. Funding and support also come from cryptocurrency exchanges and venture funds such as KuCoin, MEXC Ventures, ByBit, and Mirana Ventures.

Objectives

Decentralization and dissemination of TON.

Leadership and Development

In January 2025, the TON Foundation announced a leadership change. Manuel Stotz, the founder of Kingsway Capital and an experienced investor, succeeded Steve Yun, who had led the foundation since its inception. Stotz will focus on expanding the foundation’s activities in the United States.

This strategy aims to attract a U.S. audience and introduce new Mini Apps, marking a significant step in developing the TON ecosystem.

Directions

TON Accelerator — assistance to projects in early stages;
Mentorship Program — support for developers;
Community Bot — tools for groups and channels;
The Open League — competition and reward program for users, projects, and traders;
Early — promotion of Web3 projects: from concept to market entry;
TON Bootcamp — is an incubation program for developing mini Web3 applications on TON. It is supported by Future3 Campus and HashKey Capital.

Activities

Bounties and grants for promising TON projects;
User activity rewards;
Support for TON developers;
Engagement of venture fund financing;
Organization of meetings, conferences, interviews, hackathons, seminars;
Discussion and proposals for changes to the network governance model. The organization itself does not have the authority to control or make decisions regarding TON;
Publication of reports on Toncoin tokenomics, token issuance, distribution of partner rewards, community incentives, and asset usage for operational and ecosystem purposes.

Bounties

Reward for contributions to creating developer tools, writing smart contracts, bug hunting, creating educational materials, adaptation resources, and many other activities. There is an opportunity to submit a proposal. A separate repository is on GitHub with a list of such proposals and application rules.

Grant Programs

Support teams to develop products on TON blockchain and migrate from other blockchains.

Grants are for specific directions:

Mini-apps on Telegram: for example, SocialFi, e-commerce, utilities;
community and brand management, platforms for adaptation;
DeFi: lending protocols, derivative exchanges, DEX, yield aggregators, liquidity pools, etc.;
GameFi: viral social mechanics; developer training; others: aimed at improving TON infrastructure.

Grant programs have categories:

Type A: initial deployment and concept verification;
Type B: TON-based projects with an existing user base;
Type C: projects not based on TON but considering transitioning to TON or Telegram;
Type D: projects needing venture funding.

Developers Support

Funding for creating resources (Telegram chats and channels, YouTube channels) and documentation to help developers utilize TON. Organization of hackathons, competitions, and seminars for collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Community Initiatives

Engaging TON community through initiatives like "The Open League" This program incentivizes users to participate in network activities like staking, providing liquidity on DEX, product promotion, participating in games, and completing tasks.

Toncoin Fund

The fund is for supporting projects primarily in the DeFi sector.

Among partners: Hedge fund GOTBIT, Web3Port tool developer, Tonstarter crowdfunding platform, TEB Web3 developer incubator from South Korea, Investment company Cypher Capital Group from the UAE.

TON Ventures

Representatives of the Ton Foundation established TON Ventures to support innovative projects within the TON Ecosystem. The fund focuses on establishing communication between developers and investors. Launched in August 2024 with an initial funding of $40 million, it primarily supports @wallet, Telegram Mini Apps, Telegram Tools, and projects that attract mass consumers.

Partnerships and Projects

The Gateway: events aimed at developing and discussing ways to advance TON;
USDT on TON: TON Foundation allocated 11 million Toncoin to encourage the implementation of USDT on TON. These funds reward liquidity pool participants and withdraw from exchanges without fees.
Strategic partnership with HashKey Group. The partnership aims to support early projects and improve fiat-to-crypto exchange for users in the Asia-Pacific region.
Identity verification on TON Society using palm scanning. This approach focuses on privacy and verifies human presence without compromising anonymity. TON community members who perform palm scanning and confirm their identity get rewards.
Collaboration with Future3 Campus to support Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and HashKey Capital in launching a promotion program in Asia. The initiative aims to familiarize developers with the Web3 ecosystem on Telegram based on TON and develop mini-applications. Among the results of their work are projects such as:
- Tradoor: a decentralized platform for derivatives trading;
- WowFish: the first social fishing game based on TON on Telegram;
- Xircus: a platform for creating, deploying, and managing interchain decentralized applications and mini-apps on Telegram;
- Bounty Bay: TON social commerce platform designed to distribute products of authors and brands;
- BOOM UP: GameFi mini-apps offering a combination of social interaction and rewards through construction, protection, and improvement of personalized towers using NFT buffs created on TON;
- Anome: protocol for issuing and lending gaming NFT assets;
- Telemetree: analytics for Telegram mini-apps on TON;
- TonStash: micro-investing through change from purchases as a way to engage users in DeFi;
- DaoBot: decentralized bot for community management on Telegram;
- TonsofFriends: a dynamic directory where users can easily buy and sell access to premium Telegram communities. TON Foundation's partnership with Fireblocks and DWF Labs: access to digital asset management technologies. The collaboration aims to support TON Space wallet and the use of DeFi.
- Investments from Mirana Ventures and collaboration with ByBit. Investments in the development of products involving TON Foundation, Bybit, and Ethereum Layer 2 Mantle Network. Cashback and staking program from ByBit.
- Investments in Web3 Animoca Brands. Including the purchase of Toncoin for validation. As a result, the company became the largest validator. Another part of this collaboration is the project to launch TON Play games, which operate on TON directly in Telegram.

Society DAO

On November 1, 2024, TON community created the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Society DAO. It brings together ecosystem participants, such as TON Core, TON Society, Wallet in Telegram, and a new team of developers, TON Studio. The primary goal of Society DAO is to enhance decentralization, transparency, and community engagement while improving access to capital for all ecosystem participants.

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