[5] To obtain the resources required to make TON a reality, Telegram launched a Gram token (later renamed Toncoin)[6] sale in Q1 2018.

However, on October 11, 2019, the US SEC filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order against Telegram Group Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary TON Issuer Inc., alleging that the defendants “failed to register their offers and sales of Grams, which are securities, in violation of the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.”[8][9] In the injunction order signed later in March 2020, United States District Judge, Kevin Castel noted that “Telegram pooled the money received from the initial purchasers of Gram and used it to develop the TON blockchain as well as to  maintain and expand Messenger.”[10] Telegram introduced the design and initial implementation of the TON Blockchain.

[26][27] The Open Network's fundamental infrastructure is a scalable multi-blockchain platform designed to support the creation and operation of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts.

This design feature ensures that block generation speed is independent of transaction volume, avoiding network congestion and maintaining low operational costs irrespective of demand.

Due to the logarithmic relationship between the time taken to transfer data and the number of blockchains in TON, the network can scale to millions of chains without compromising processing speed.

Validator nodes use deposit stakes to vouch for their reliability, achieving consensus through a variant of the Byzantine fault tolerance protocol.

This approach is resource-efficient and allows TON to devote the computing power of nodes to processing transactions and executing smart contracts.

These rulesets dictate various aspects of the workchains, such as account address formats, transaction protocols, and virtual machines for executing smart contracts and managing basic cryptocurrencies.

This service simplifies the process of accessing decentralized applications by allowing users to use short and simple domain names rather than long strings of alphanumeric characters.

[39][40] The TON blockchain supports a growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, enabling fast, low-cost transactions and seamless integration with Telegram.

Key DeFi projects on TON : The largest decentralized exchange (DEX) utilizing an automated market maker (AMM) model, allowing users to swap TON-based tokens and provide liquidity.

Telegram’s built-in crypto wallet, enabling users to store, send, and receive TON-based assets directly within the messaging app.

[48] On October 11, 2019, a couple of weeks before the planned TON launch, SEC obtained a temporary restrictive order to prevent the distribution of Grams.

[49] After a lengthy legal battle between Telegram and the SEC, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York agreed with the SEC's vision[50] that the sale of Grams, the distribution to initial purchasers, and the highly likely future resale should be viewed as a single "scheme" to distribute Grams to the secondary market in an unregistered security offering.

[51][52][49] Following the court decision, the Telegram Open Network team announced that they would be unable to launch the project by the expected 30 April 2020 deadline.

"New and innovative businesses are welcome to participate in our capital markets, but they cannot do so in violation of the registration requirements of the federal securities laws," the SEC spokesperson noted.