Toncoin surged by 70% in a week: what is happening with the cryptocurrency?

The price of the altcoin (alternative cryptocurrency) Toncoin suddenly began rising on May 5, 2026, and within just two days, it increased by more than 50%, according to data from the monitoring service CoinMarketCap. Over the past week alone, the price of Toncoin has climbed by approximately 73%.

Toncoin rose after Pavel Durov's statements

The value of Toncoin has been rising following two major statements published by Telegram founder Pavel Durov on his official channel. First, on May 4, Durov announced that transaction fees on the TON network had decreased sixfold — "practically to zero."

Durov also announced the next priority step for the TON ecosystem — replacing TON Foundation* with Telegram, adding that the messenger would become the largest validator* of the Toncoin network. According to Durov, this is expected to occur within the next 3–7 weeks, which is one of the main reasons Toncoin surged so rapidly.

* TON Foundation is an independent non-profit organization responsible for the development and governance of the TON blockchain since 2020, following the closure of the Telegram Open Network project by its founder Pavel Durov.

* A validator is a node responsible for verifying transactions, storing copies of the blockchain, and ensuring the security and operation of a decentralized network such as Toncoin. Validators reach consensus using mechanisms built into the protocol, such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

At the end of his message, Durov added: "This is the third of seven steps to make TON great again" — parodying Trump's famous slogan "Make America Great Again." After this statement, Toncoin rose by more than 34%. From May 4 to May 5, Toncoin rose from $1.37 to $1.84.

On May 5, Durov made another statement: according to him, Telegram becoming a validator of the TON blockchain would increase the decentralization of the network. The following day, May 6, Toncoin rose by another 30%, reaching a six-month high of $2.5. The last time TON traded this high was in October 2025.

Amid the sharp rise in Toncoin's price, trading volumes for TON increased more than fivefold within 24 hours. According to CoinMarketCap, daily trading volume temporarily exceeded $1 billion, marking one of the highest levels for Toncoin since 2024.

Toncoin is rising due to high validator rewards

Another reason why Toncoin has grown so strongly is the high annual staking* yield of TON cryptocurrency, which as of May 2026 exceeds 20%.

* Staking is a mechanism used in Proof-of-Stake blockchains in which cryptocurrency holders lock their coins in the network for a certain period in order to participate in transaction validation and blockchain operations. In return, they receive rewards in the form of newly issued coins, effectively earning interest on their locked assets.

According to Durov, an increasing amount of TON cryptocurrency is being locked in the network as validators compete for the high yield. This means that the circulating supply of the cryptocurrency available on the market gradually decreases over time, helping Toncoin continue to rise.

Analysts note that Toncoin has risen amid a liquidity shortage: a significant portion of coins is locked in staking and unavailable for sale on exchanges. Under such conditions, even relatively modest demand growth can sharply accelerate Toncoin's price increase. Over the past month alone, Toncoin has risen by more than 82%, and over the past 90 days, by 70%.

According to the Tonscan block explorer, the Toncoin network currently has 400 validators, 15 of which are associated with Telegram. In total, validators have locked 1.21 billion TON coins — nearly one-quarter of the circulating supply, which stood at 5.17 billion at the time of writing.

After Toncoin rose by more than 1.5x in just a couple of days, the market capitalization of TON once again exceeded $6 billion. Toncoin also returned to the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the CoinMarketCap ranking, climbing to 17th place by market capitalization and surpassing assets such as Stellar, Litecoin, and Dai, as well as Trump-linked project World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

However, following the explosive growth and six-month high, Toncoin corrected by 13%, falling to $2.23.

Did Toncoin rise after TON network performance improvements?

On May 1, an article was published comparing the 30 largest blockchains by market capitalization based on block finality time*. According to tests conducted in April 2026, TON emerged as the leader — something Pavel Durov also mentioned on May 6 in his Telegram channel amid the rally in Toncoin.

* Block finality time is the period between a block being added to the blockchain and the moment the network considers it permanently confirmed. Once finalized, a block cannot be reversed or replaced without violating consensus rules, meaning the transactions within it are considered complete.

TON's block finality time was just 0.6 seconds. For comparison, the Avalanche C-Chain network, which ranked second in the tests, recorded a finality time of 1 second, while Solana reached 32 seconds. It is therefore unsurprising that Toncoin has been rising following Durov's latest statements and the release of new TON blockchain performance data.

Some crypto analysts believe Toncoin rose not only because of Durov's statements, but also because TON is gradually transforming into an infrastructure blockchain for the Telegram ecosystem. This includes potential integration of crypto payments, mini-apps, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and digital identity services for Telegram's audience of more than one billion users.

National Bank of Belarus included TON in the list of approved cryptocurrencies: did Toncoin rise because of this?

Earlier, in April 2026, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus issued a decree defining a list of digital assets approved for use by crypto banks. The document also regulates permitted crypto operations, including deposits, lending backed by digital assets, staking, and other activities.

In addition to 25 major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Solana, and several stablecoins, the list also included Toncoin. Experts do not give a definitive assessment that Toncoin rose specifically because of this decision, but they also do not rule out that it had a noticeable impact.

According to specialists, the main reasons for Toncoin's surge were Pavel Durov's statements and the fundamental changes underway in the TON ecosystem.