TON in May 2026: a monthly retrospective

May 2026 was one of the most infrastructure-packed months in TON’s history. The TON Core v2026.05 release candidate shipped with TVM v14, catchain (the legacy consensus) was finally removed, Tolk got ABI and TypeScript wrappers, Tonkeeper finished its RC cycle and shipped 4.7.0 stable.

In parallel — structural shifts in DeFi (liquid-staking dominance, DEX outflows), a stabilising Telegram Gifts market after April’s burn, and continued regulatory work in Russia and the EU.

Here’s what happened, what it means, and where TON is heading.

Infrastructure: TON Core v2026.05-rc and TVM v14

May 25 — the TON team shipped the TON Core v2026.05 release candidate. 33 merged PRs. Headlines:

TVM v14 — major virtual-machine upgrade. The specific new opcodes will be clear from the stable tag, but the upgrade itself is the biggest TVM rev in six months — worth tracking for developers. Detailed breakdown — TON Core v2026.05-rc release explainer.

Catchain removed — the old BFT consensus, replaced by Simplex in earlier releases, is now fully gone from the codebase. Legacy cleanup.

adnl-proxy and legacy RLDP removed for full-node shard inbound — networking stack modernisation.

Cap validator set total weight — the validator set’s total weight is now capped, reducing the risk of excessive concentration.

Tolk 1.4 and 1.4.1. In parallel — the largest update to TON’s smart-contract language since its release. ABI export, TypeScript wrappers, source maps and debugger marks. An infrastructure shift because Tolk now has a full toolchain. More — Tolk 1.4 ABI/TS/source maps.

Wallets: RC series wraps up to stable

May 18-22 — Tonkeeper shipped five RC builds of 4.7.0 (rc.1 → rc.5), stabilising along the way.

May 25 — the 4.7.0 stable release. Highlights: fix for the signData spoofing path through TON Connect manifest, reworked swap, analytics, balance skeleton loader instead of “$0” while data loads. More — Tonkeeper 4.7.0 stable.

In parallel — MyTonWallet went from 4.9.4 (May 14) → 4.9.5 (May 22) → 4.9.6 (May 25). The team doesn’t publish a detailed changelog, but the cadence shows active development.

DeFi: concentration in liquid staking

TON TVL picture at the end of May (per DeFiLlama):

Top takeaway from May:

1. Tonstakers holds more than half of all TON DeFi TVL (~$170M). Normal for a mature L1 (Lido dominates Ethereum too), but for TON it means single-protocol liquidity concentration.
2. DEX segment is broadly red. All 5 DEXes (STON.fi, DeDust, TONCO, Storm Trade, swap.coffee) are down on the week. TONCO lost 18% week — the biggest drop.
3. Cross-chain is the only growing segment. NEAR Intents +20% week. If the trend holds, by end of June the ecosystem gets material liquidity inflows from NEAR through bridges.

Detailed breakdown — TON DeFi TVL picture May 2026.

Security: TAC bridge incident retrospective

April lost ~$2.5M on TAC bridge via a message-verification exploit. May aftermath:

• TAC resumed operations with tightened limits on large transactions after an unscheduled re-audit.
• Trust still recovering — TVL well below pre-incident.
• Lessons systematised in our cross-chain bridges on TON: security 2026.

The month also showed that audits aren’t a guarantee: TAC was audited before the incident. New vectors can slip past any review. So in May we shipped a safe TON discovery checklist — 12 points to vet any new wallet, DEX, or dApp before using.

Telegram Gifts: stabilisation after the burn

April brought a partial collection burn (major collections dropped 30-50% floor). May was stabilisation:

• Major collections (Plush Pepe, Cake, Lobster) hold floor.
• Minor collections zeroed out or moved to long tail.
• Activity shifted from marketplaces to the @durov pre-market channel where new releases get announced — that’s where most sniping happens now.
• Marketplaces (Portals, Tonnel, MRKT) hold volume, but daily new-trader count is dropping — the market got more “trader” and less “collector”.

Full context — Telegram Gifts: how the market works.

Regulation: status quo

May passed without sudden moves in TON crypto regulation across major jurisdictions:

• Russia: the 2025 personal income tax plan for crypto is in force, no new amendments. FATF Travel Rule for large transfers — in process.
• EU: MiCA in full phase, no changes. MiCA and TON in EU 2026.
• US: status quo on SEC vs CFTC classifying Toncoin. SEC vs CFTC Toncoin classification.
• Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE: active regulatory base, no changes in May.

What we shipped in May

Brief on our own content:

• 18 new RU+EN articles covering TON Core RC, Tolk 1.4, Tonkeeper stable, cross-chain bridges, safety checklist, beginner guides.
• 3 weekly digests — May 22, 26.
• 2 infra deep-dives — Yandex Webmaster + Metrika, Google Search Console + GA4.
• Telegram channel @ton_adoption crossed 1000 subscribers.
• Backlinks dashboard launched — unified tracking across Telegraph + Dzen + DEV.to + Mastodon + Bluesky + Paragraph.

What to expect in June 2026

Confirmed:

• TON Core v2026.05 stable release (1-4 weeks after rc).
• More RC/patch versions of Tonkeeper and MyTonWallet.

Likely:

• New round of Telegram Gifts releases (Durov usually delivers something at the start of summer).
• DEX list expansion or a new launchpad.
• Cross-chain flows continue, NEAR Intents keeps growing.
• TONCO either bottoms and stabilises, or continues to bleed — critical point for the DEX segment.

Unlikely but possible:

• A new cross-chain bridge incident.
• Regulatory decision in Russia on Toncoin’s status (formal cryptocurrency vs digital financial asset).

Next monthly recap — early July. Weekly digest — Mondays.

Key May reads

• Tolk 1.4 ABI / TypeScript / source maps — for developers
• TON Core v2026.05-rc explainer — for infra watchers
• Tonkeeper 4.7.0 stable — for users
• Cross-chain bridges on TON: security 2026 — security retrospective
• Safe TON discovery checklist — for everyone
• TON DeFi TVL picture May 2026 — for DeFi watchers
• TON for beginners: first 30 days — for newcomers
• Best Mini Apps on TON 2026: directory — ecosystem explorer