Key Highlights
- Catchain 2.0 goes live on TON blockchain, reducing block times to just 400 milliseconds
- Toncoin’s value jumped more than 5%, reaching approximately $1.30 after the upgrade
- Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced this as step one of his seven-phase “Make TON Great Again” strategy
- Network inflation expected to climb from 0.6% to 3.6% annually due to accelerated block generation
- Japanese exchange Rakuten Wallet scheduled to enable TON spot trading beginning April 15
The value of Toncoin surged over 5% to approximately $1.30 following the activation of the TON blockchain’s Catchain 2.0 consensus mechanism. Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov made the announcement, highlighting a significant transformation in the network’s transaction processing capabilities.
Prior to implementing this upgrade, the TON network required approximately 10 seconds to finalize transactions. Following Catchain 2.0’s deployment, block generation times have been reduced dramatically to 400 milliseconds. Payment confirmations now complete in about one second, while decentralized applications are anticipated to operate at speeds comparable to centralized alternatives.
The TON blockchain just got upgraded and is now 10× faster.
Block rate increased 6×.
Transactions are now instant, subsecond.
This was step 1 of 7 to Make TON Great Again (MTONGA).
Next step: cut the already low transaction fees by 6×.
— Pavel Durov (@durov) April 9, 2026
Network validators conducted voting for the upgrade between April 8 and 9, 2026. Once the voting process concluded, Catchain 2.0 became operational across the network. Major exchanges including Binance and Bithumb performed wallet maintenance procedures during the week to accommodate the technical changes.
The base chain block reward remains unchanged at 1.7 TON. Nevertheless, the significantly faster block production rate means validators will receive increased rewards during each validation cycle. This change is expected to push annual network inflation from approximately 0.6% up to 3.6%.
Durov characterized this upgrade as the initial phase of a seven-part strategic plan. The subsequent phase will focus on reducing transaction costs, potentially lowering fees by approximately six times their current levels.
Platform Growth and Adoption
TON’s development extends beyond technical improvements. Rakuten Wallet revealed plans to list Toncoin for spot trading beginning April 15, 2026, providing Japanese retail traders access through a fully regulated exchange platform.
The TON Foundation established a partnership with SCRYPT to deliver Swiss-regulated USDT accessibility on TON for corporate clients. Meanwhile, Fireblocks and Dynamic launched enterprise-grade wallet infrastructure specifically designed for Telegram-integrated financial services.
Future milestones on the development calendar include the TON Teleport Bridge for Bitcoin interoperability and TON Pay 2.0, both scheduled for mid-2026 deployment.
Technical Price Analysis
Toncoin concluded trading near $1.2868 on the upgrade deployment date. The price action moved above all three lines of the Alligator indicator, positioned around $1.2620, $1.2509, and $1.2477. The MACD histogram shifted into positive territory as the MACD line crossed above its signal line.
$TON long at $1.24—second target hit at $1.278. +3.39% in under 16 hours. Finora keeps these gains coming. 📈 https://t.co/Cr1PBsHiTh
— Finora AI – Your Trade Buddy (@Finora_EN) April 9, 2026
The immediate resistance level appears around $1.3168. A sustained break above this threshold could establish a path toward $1.34 to $1.36, with $1.40 as a longer-term target. Support levels are established near $1.25 to $1.26.
Daily trading volume increased by more than 35% to reach $130.1 million. Toncoin’s total market capitalization stood at $3.17 billion at the time of analysis.
Blockchain analytics platform Santiment observed that the top 100 Toncoin whale wallets have acquired an additional 189,730 TON tokens during the previous three months, despite the asset losing approximately two-thirds of its value since reaching a local peak in August 2025.
