TON Foundation grants in 2026: paused, and what's open

How did the TON grants program work?

The TON Foundation's grants funded teams building on TON, with a focus on Telegram Mini Apps, games, payments and DeFi. Grants were paid per milestone, with no advance payments, and projects had to finish within six months. If milestone payments are new to you, our guide to milestone-based grants explains how they work.

In May 2025 the Foundation shifted toward teams that already had traction, splitting applicants into early-stage Contenders and established Champions. We could not read the Foundation's own announcement of that model, because blog.ton.org now redirects to a Telegram channel; the details come from a news summary.

How much did TON grants pay?

The last guidelines we could read, from April 2025, set these caps:

• Most categories: up to $50,000, paid in TON.
• Developer education and "other": up to $20,000.
• DeFi: up to $300,000 in grant support, plus up to $200,000 in user rewards and $20,000 in Telegram ads, for teams with proven traction.

These figures are historical. The guidelines were removed from the repository in June 2025 and may have been replaced by the Contenders and Champions model, which did not publish amounts in the pages we could read. No minimum was ever published, and we could not verify any named grantees.

What changed with Telegram and Gram?

TON's stewardship is moving from the TON Foundation to Telegram. According to news reports cited in our research, by June 2026 Telegram had announced it would replace the Foundation as TON's main steward, and Toncoin was renamed Gram on June 15, 2026.

Beyond the "Coming soon" label on the Foundation's site, neither Telegram nor the Foundation has said when grants will return or in what form. Until there is an official page with dates and rules, treat any TON grant offer as unconfirmed, and remember that past grants were paid in TON, so any future token-paid grant carries price risk; our guide to grants paid in tokens covers that.

Where can TON builders apply now?

STON.fi's grant program is the open grant on TON in our directory. Two multichain programs also fit some TON projects:

• STON.fi DEX GrantsSTON.fiUp to $10KAnytime
• Gear Foundation GrantsGear Foundation$10K–$30KAnytime
• Tether Grants and BountiesTether$1.5K–$5KAnytime

STON.fi DEX Grants

STON.fi is the main decentralized exchange on TON. Its grant program pays up to $10,000 in USDT to developers who integrate the STON.fi SDK or its Omniston swap widget into their products: wallets, exchanges, games with tokens and new DeFi platforms.

Projects at any stage can apply, from concept to adding a feature to an existing product. The money must go to development work such as coding, debugging and testing, and STON.fi expects you to do that work in-house rather than outsource it. You keep your IP, and grantees also get documentation, technical support and perks from STON.fi's service partners. There is no deadline, and we estimate about 3 weeks to a decision.

Gear Foundation Grants, for Telegram games

Telegram game developers have one more option, on another chain. The Gear Foundation's grants for Vara Network list Telegram games and wallets among their open requests, next to mobile and onchain games. Most accepted grants are $10,000 to $30,000, paid on milestones you propose. The work has to be built on or integrated with Vara, not TON.

Tether Grants and Bounties

Tether pays task-based grants of $1,500 to $5,000 in USDT or bitcoin for work on its open stack, such as the Wallet Development Kit for self-custodial wallets inside apps. It is not tied to TON, so the work has to fit Tether's own task list or focus areas.

For game projects, see Web3 gaming grants, and browse the full grant directory for everything else.

How to spot an outdated TON grant listing

Many grant lists still show TON as open. A listing is out of date if it:

• Links to ton.org/grants, which returned 404 on October 1, 2026.
• Quotes the $50,000 cap or the Contenders and Champions tiers as current.
• Asks you to apply through a form that isn't linked from an official TON or Telegram page.

Never pay a fee or share a seed phrase to apply for a grant. Our guide to crypto grant scams lists the common patterns. When TON grants do reopen, a strong application will still need the basics in our guide on how to write a grant proposal.

FAQ

When did TON Foundation grants stop?

The TON Foundation stopped taking grant and bounty applications on May 20, 2026, while it reviews the program's structure and priorities. The program's GitHub repository was archived the same month, and ton.org/grants returned 404 when web3grant checked on October 1, 2026. No relaunch date has been announced, and the Foundation's site lists grants as "Coming soon".

Will TON grants come back?

Possibly, but there is no date. The TON Foundation's site lists its grants program as "Coming soon" without a date, budget or rules. By June 2026 Telegram had announced it would replace the Foundation as TON's main steward, and no official statement says whether TON grants will return under the Foundation or under Telegram.

How much did TON grants pay?

Under the TON Foundation's last published guidelines, from April 2025, most grant categories were capped at $50,000 in TON, developer education and other work at $20,000, and the DeFi track offered up to $300,000 plus user rewards and Telegram ads for teams with traction. Grants were paid per milestone with no advance payment. All of these figures are historical.

What is the STON.fi grant program?

The STON.fi DEX Grant Program pays up to $10,000 in USDT to teams that integrate the STON.fi SDK or Omniston swap widget into wallets, exchanges, games or DeFi apps on TON. It has no deadline, accepts projects at any stage, and requires the money to go to in-house development work. As of October 2026 it is the open TON grant in web3grant's directory.

Is Gram the same as Toncoin?

Yes. According to news reports cited in web3grant's research, Toncoin, the native token of TON, was renamed Gram on June 15, 2026, as Telegram moved to replace the TON Foundation as the network's main steward. Older TON grant guidelines, such as the April 2025 caps of up to $50,000, quote amounts paid in TON from before the rename.