The Open Network Foundation has been launched $TON Pay, a new payments software development kit (SDK) designed to make cryptocurrencies usable for everyday consumer transactions within the Telegram ecosystem.
In a Monday release shared with Cointelegraph, the product is positioned as a simple, wallet-agnostic payment layer that allows merchants and mini-app developers to accept crypto directly through Telegram, with the aim of making the app a hub for seamless, blockchain-based commerce.
According to the $TON Foundation, $TON Pay offers developers a single software kit that integrates with Telegram Mini Apps, eliminating many of the headaches associated with managing wallet infrastructure, settlement and payment flows.
$TON The Foundation’s vice president of payments, Nikola Plecas, said the tool allows merchants to “accept payments seamlessly and natively on $TON via a simple SDK integration,” adding that it works with various wallets and tokens, including Toncoin ($TON) and Tether’s USDt (USDT).
The system is designed for scale, he said, with targeted transaction times of less than a second and average fees of less than one cent. According to Plecas, the ultimate goal is to “enable transactions for Telegram’s global audience of more than 1.1 billion monthly active users.”
By embedding payments directly into Telegram, $TON Pay aims to reduce common barriers to cryptocurrency adoption, such as multi-step checkout, pre-payment of gas costs and the lack of simple merchant tools.
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$TON Pay focuses on daily payments within Telegram
Initial, $TON Pay will operate within Telegram Mini Apps, with plans to expand to web environments and other platforms over time.
Telegram Mini Apps. Source: Telegram
Plecas said the Foundation first focused on refining the in-app experience, noting that “onchain Telegram-based trading is a huge opportunity.”
Future updates will include support for subscriptions, gasless transactions and region-specific off-ramps, he said.
The team also plans to work with local third-party providers for custody, compliance and fiat conversion services, an approach intended to balance decentralization with regulatory requirements.
Optional merchant tools, including analytics and wallets for multi-party calculations, are also in development.
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$TON Pay is joining the busy ‘everything app’ race
$TON The rollout of Pay comes at a time when other major platforms are moving to integrated payments. Elon Musk’s
Coinbase is pursuing a similar strategy, rebranding Coinbase Wallet as the Base App, a crypto-everything app that combines a wallet with social features, payments, trading, and support for onchain mini-apps running on the Base Layer-2 network.
$TON faces long-standing skepticism related to its deep integration with Telegram, which was previously criticized for its lack of decentralization, unclear governance and scams linked to unofficial projects.
The $TON The Foundation maintains that $TON remains an open, permissionless network where developers can build freely.
Sellers use $TON Pay must comply with Telegram’s “platform-specific terms and policies,” with additional requirements applicable as the SDK expands beyond the app, according to Plecas.
“We are designing a system that addresses the key challenges in crypto payments,” Plecas said, such as friction, gas costs and onboarding, while remaining competitive with fiat systems.
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