No longer support other blockchains! Telegram announces: Mini Apps can only use TON mainnet, Token

According to the announcement on January 21st, Telegram and its mini-apps will stop supporting all blockchains except The Open Network (TON).

Telegram has stated that TON will become the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for the platform's Mini Apps, as part of a new partnership between Telegram and the TON Foundation.

The announcement pointed out that Telegram will also continue to exclusively accept Toncoin (TON), the native token of the TON blockchain, as a non-legal currency payment tool. Toncoin can be used to exchange for assets and services provided by Telegram.

This new partnership is built on the close collaboration between Telegram and TON Foundation. Previously, Telegram has repeatedly supported TON as its blockchain network choice for Web3 infrastructure.

The TON Foundation stated that Telegram's TON functionality played a crucial role in the growth of the TON blockchain network, as it assisted in updating its Mini Apps, using Toncoin for payments, and the advertising platform. The announcement stated:

The new exclusive agreement strengthens the technical cooperation between TON and Telegram.

As part of the partnership, Telegram will continue to accept TON as the sole payment token for Telegram services such as Telegram Stars, Telegram Premium, Telegram Ads, and Telegram gateway.

In addition, TON will be the only token that can be used to pay Telegram Mini App developers and channel owners. These developers and channel owners earn their Telegram Stars and ad revenue through TON.

The spokesperson for the TON Foundation said, "Many developers had previously chosen to deploy on TON, but some developers have added blockchain functionality through other networks."

He pointed out that TON's expanded cooperation with Telegram will make TON Connect the exclusive protocol for connecting Telegram Mini Apps to blockchain wallets. Therefore, Mini Apps can now only deploy blockchain functions on TON.

He said that TON has always been the only non-legal currency payment option accepted by Telegram, further strengthening their commitment to integrating TON into their ecosystem.

The new president of the TON Foundation, Manuel Stotz, emphasizes that the exclusive partnership with Telegram is an important part of its development blueprint, "TON is now ready to embrace explosive growth in 2025." He said:

Telegram is the 6th most downloaded app in the world, a beacon of free speech, and the default messaging platform for the global blockchain community. No other blockchain can compare.

One of the most popular Mini Apps on Telegram is the click game Hamster Kombat. However, on January 15th, Hamster Kombat announced plans to launch its own blockchain platform, which also led to the latest restriction on the requirement that internal application services on the platform must run on the TON chain.

<No longer supports other blockchains! Telegram announced that Mini Apps can only be used with TON public chain and tokens.> This article was first published in 'Block Times'.