TON Foundation: who actually runs the blockchain in 2026

When you read about TON, the same phrase keeps showing up: “TON Foundation announced”, “TON Foundation funded”, “grant from TON Foundation”. Who exactly is this “foundation”? How many people work there, who makes the decisions, how does it relate to Telegram, and what changed after Pavel Durov publicly declared Telegram was stepping in alongside the Foundation? Below — the structure, the names and the responsibility map as of May 2026.

What TON Foundation is

TON Foundation is the non-profit organisation that has coordinated development of The Open Network since 2020. It emerged at the moment when the Telegram team had to drop the public launch of the project after the dispute with the US SEC. An open community of developers and early contributors organised the foundation as a legal vessel to continue the work — without the Telegram brand and without SEC liabilities.

What the foundation actually does:

• protocol development and maintenance (the node, TVM, base SDKs);
• grant programmes for developers and start-ups;
• infrastructure — ton.org, docs.ton.org, the Builders Portal;
• partnerships with exchanges, funds, regulators;
• educational and marketing initiatives;
• coordination with Telegram on integration interfaces (TON Connect, Wallet, Mini Apps).

Legally the foundation is independent of Telegram. Without that detail, the entire later story — institutional capital, Coinbase listing, regulated US exposure — would not work.

Origins: 2018-2020

The history splits cleanly into three acts.

Act 1 — the Telegram era (2018-2019). Nikolai Durov designs TON, Telegram runs the Gram ICO and raises $1.7 billion from institutional investors. Launch was scheduled for October 2019.

Act 2 — the SEC dispute (2019-2020). The US SEC classifies Gram as an unregistered security. Telegram fights at first, then returns the money to investors and abandons the launch under its own brand.

Act 3 — the Foundation (2020-present). A subset of early contributors, including Steve Yun, forms TON Foundation as a non-profit and continues development. Telegram steps back legally but stays the largest user of the network.

If you want the full chronology of the years that followed, see the TON 2025-2026 retrospective.

The key people

There are dozens of staff inside the foundation, but only a handful of public faces whose decisions set direction. Worth knowing each one.

Steve Yun — co-founder, board member

One of the founders of TON Foundation in 2018, a full-time ecosystem contributor since 2017. Before TON he was COO of Koinvestor, where (per The Org and LinkedIn) he raised $50M across nine crypto projects. He also runs TVM Ventures — a VC fund investing in TON-native projects.

Steve Yun is the main face of TON across Asia. Regular speaker at Asia Blockchain Summit and The Open Summit. He served as president of the foundation until Manuel Stotz took the role in early 2025.

Manuel “Manny” Stotz — ex-president, executive chairman of TON Strategy Co.

Veteran crypto investor and blockchain advocate. Joined TON Foundation as president in early 2025 — at the peak of the US expansion wave. His mandate was framed as opening the US market for TON.

In August 2025 Stotz stepped down as president and moved to Verb Technology Company as executive chairman. The trigger was a $558M PIPE deal. Verb was renamed TON Strategy Co. — a public Toncoin treasury company for institutional investors. Stotz kept his board seat at the Foundation, but his core role is now the strategic integration of TON into global finance.

Maximilian “Max” Crown — president and CEO of the Foundation

Co-founder of MoonPay, one of the largest fiat on-ramps in crypto. Joined TON Foundation in April 2025 as CEO. After Stotz’s departure he was given expanded authority: from 20 August 2025 he holds both the president and CEO roles.

Crown is the bridge between crypto-native development and regulated financial infrastructure. His MoonPay DNA is visible in the 2026 roadmap: an emphasis on TON Pay 2.0, fiat on-ramps, merchant API and payment UX.

Nikolai Durov — protocol architect

Although the Durov brothers formally handed development to the foundation in 2020, Nikolai Durov remains the architect of the core technical decisions. The TON Whitepaper is his text. TVM, FunC and the base sharding model are his design. After Pavel Durov’s 4 May 2026 statement, Nikolai is de facto back in active development — but now from the Telegram side, as the lead of the validator node.

Pavel Durov — the public face of MTONGA

CEO of Telegram. Since 4 May 2026 — the lead public “evangelist” of TON. Personally crystallised the Make TON Great Again initiative, announced Telegram’s 2.2 million TON stake, and promised accelerated technical upgrades. Legally Durov is not part of TON Foundation — but in practice, after MTONGA, he sets the protocol’s direction.

Structure — who decides what

By May 2026 the responsibility stack looks like this.

Critically — after MTONGA this is a coexisting system. The Foundation has not gone anywhere, but part of direction-setting is now duplicated by Telegram. Details of the integration are in the partnerships article.

How the foundation earns and spends

TON Foundation does not capture network revenue, but it does have stable sources of capital.

Sources.

• proceeds from early Toncoin allocations during the 2020-2021 launch;
• investments from institutional partners — Sequoia, Benchmark, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures;
• stakes in ecosystem infrastructure projects;
• partnership agreements (e.g. Chainlink CCIP);
• slashing and penalty flows — theoretically a slice can route to the foundation, but published figures so far are modest.

Where it goes.

• grant programmes for developers (Mini Apps, infrastructure, DeFi);
• team payroll and audits;
• marketing (TON Ecosystem Update, events — The Open Summit);
• legal and regulatory work (new market entry, listings);
• technical contractors (Rust Node v1, AppKit, Teleport bridge).

The foundation does not publish a full budget but reports on flagship grants in the regular TON Ecosystem Update.

What MTONGA changed for the foundation

After 4 May 2026 some observers asked whether Durov’s statement was the end of the foundation. Short answer — no. What did change:

1. Speed of technical upgrades. Telegram took on part of the protocol work internally and promises faster releases. That removes one of the foundation’s most painful pressure points — slow development cadence.
2. Role split. The Foundation focuses on grants, regulation and ecosystem development. Telegram focuses on core protocol work and messenger UX.
3. Financial structure. TON Strategy Co. moved institutional capital into a separate vessel. The Foundation stays a “technology” foundation, not a “treasury” one.
4. Public communication. Until 4 May 2026 the foundation was the dominant voice. Now Telegram (Durov), the Foundation (Crown) and TON Strategy Co. (Stotz) speak in parallel. That’s a plus — more channels — and a risk: misaligned messages.

How to engage with the foundation

If you are a developer.

• Apply for a grant via the Builders Portal at ton.org;
• Use AppKit, TON Connect and TON Pay 2.0 as the standard SDKs;
• Take part in public RFPs and hackathons (The Open Summit, regional events in Asia and Europe).

If you are a user.

• The foundation does not custody your funds and is not responsible for specific dApps. Decisions sit with the user;
• It is useful to follow the TON Ecosystem Update — short status reports;
• The Telegram Wallet, Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet are independent products; the foundation does not run them.

If you are an institutional investor.

• The entry point is TON Strategy Co. (for exchange-listed exposure) or direct OTC through the Foundation;
• Coinbase, Bitstamp — regulated spot exposure;
• Tonstakers, Hipo, bemo — staking infrastructure for long-duration yield.

What’s next

By the end of 2026 the Foundation plans to finish transferring part of the protocol work to Telegram and concentrate on grants and ecosystem development. Crown and the team continue work on TON Pay 2.0, full AppKit and the Teleport bridge. Details — in the roadmap article.

Sources

• TON Foundation — official page
• Max Crown Appointed President and CEO of TON Foundation
• TON Foundation appoints Maximilian Crown CEO
• TON Foundation welcomes Manuel Stotz as new President
• Steve Yun — speaker profile, Asia Blockchain Summit
• Coinbase Ventures buys Toncoin from Telegram