Gasless transfer
Transferring a TON asset without holding TON to pay gas. The gas is paid by a relayer (taking a fee in the transferred jetton); the user just signs the message.
Aliases: gasless, sponsored transaction
Gasless transfer is the pattern where a user sends a jetton or TON without needing TON on the balance to pay gas. The real gas is paid by a relayer, which collects its reward from the transferred jetton (e.g., USDT).
Why it exists
The big UX pain point on TON and any account-abstraction blockchain: “I have USDT but no TON, so I can’t send it.” Gasless solves this — the relayer spends TON, keeps an equivalent in USDT, and the sender doesn’t even know gas exists.
How it’s implemented on TON
- Wallet V5 introduced the extension mechanism, which the relayer uses to add its own messages to the user’s action list.
- TON Connect 2.x supports gasless intents: the DApp sends an intent to the relayer provider, which builds an extended action for the user’s wallet to sign.
- Tonkeeper and MyTonWallet have shipped gasless USDT in their UI since 2024-2025.
The price of convenience
The relayer takes a small premium (~$0.05-0.10) in USDT per transfer. If you have TON on the balance, a direct transfer is cheaper.
How the flow works on-chain
A typical TON gasless transfer looks like this:
- The user signs not a regular external message but an action for the extension: “relayer X, send Y USDT to address Z”.
- The relayer receives the signed intent through an off-chain channel (an HTTPS endpoint at TonX / Tonkeeper Battery).
- The relayer builds and pays for the external message from its own TON balance, acting as an extension on the user’s wallet.
- The action list contains two messages: (a) the Y USDT transfer to the recipient, (b) the fee paid back to the relayer.
All steps are atomic — if the relayer fee can’t be paid (e.g., insufficient USDT in the jetton-wallet), the whole transaction reverts.
Comparison with EVM meta-transactions
| Aspect | TON gasless | EVM EIP-2771 / EIP-4337 |
|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | wallet contract (W5) | smart-contract account + bundler |
| Who pays gas | relayer extension | bundler/paymaster |
| What the user signs | action for the extension | UserOperation (EIP-712) |
| Extra contract | none (in-wallet) | EntryPoint + paymaster |
| Cost per tx | $0.05-0.10 | $0.30-2.00 (depends on L1) |
TON gasless ends up cheaper because there’s no separate paymaster contract and the network itself has low fees.
Known providers
- Tonkeeper Battery — Tonkeeper’s in-house relayer. Top up the “battery” token balance and gasless USDT UX kicks in automatically.
- TONX Sponsor — an independent API, accessible through TON Connect for integration into any DApp.
- MyTonWallet Gasless USDT — wallet-native flow with its own relayer pool.
Risks
- Censorship: a relayer can refuse service (compliance, KYC, geo). Mitigation — keep a fallback with TON on the balance.
- Front-running: a signed intent can be “stolen” by a lower-fee relayer. Defence: the signed action includes a specific relayer address.
- Privacy: the relayer sees the receiver address. Mitigation: use a routing/burner relayer.
Related
- Wallet V5 — the wallet that made gasless practical on TON.
- Wallet V5 Extension — the mechanism relayers use to sign on the user’s behalf.
- USDT — the most frequent gasless use-case.