Introduction

While the NFT boom of 2021 may have cooled, in 2025 the technology continues to develop. Early NFTs were speculative collectibles, but they proved that verifiable digital ownership could be recorded on-chain. As markets matured, attention shifted from price spikes to NFTs as tools for access, identity, and utility.

On TON, this manifests as "NFT 2.0": standards that enforce creator royalties and clarify ownership rights while using off-chain coordination to preserve on-chain integrity. This article outlines how NFTs have evolved on TON and what this means for adoption.

From simple collectibles to sophisticated infrastructure

The first wave of NFTs was tied to crypto culture, marketing campaigns, and profile-picture collections such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Many buyers treated these tokens as volatile assets whose value depended on sentiment and scarcity rather than on practical use.

When market conditions reversed between 2022 and early 2023, trading volumes contracted, and prices for many collections fell sharply. However, the idea of verifiable digital ownership remained attractive to creators and brands.

In recent years, major companies have begun experimenting with NFTs as loyalty credentials, event tickets, and participation badges, designed for low-cost distribution and longevity beyond single campaigns.

In this newer phase, NFTs function less as isolated artworks and more as foundational elements of digital identity systems, representing reputation, entitlement, or membership within a community.

Why TON became the NFT chain of choice in 2025

This evolution has found a natural home on TON. TON combines a scalable Layer 1 architecture with deep integration into Telegram, giving builders access to a billion-strong user base inside the messenger.

The network is built to support high transaction volumes at low cost, providing a foundation for tokens, smart contracts, and NFTs that can operate globally and at scale. For NFTs, this allows developers to design experiences around frequent, native interactions- such as collectibles, game items, or community rewards- without imposing prohibitive fees on users.

On top of this base layer, TON's ecosystem has developed marketplaces that enable fast listings, on-chain settlement, and intuitive Telegram-native trading flows. Users can discover an NFT in a channel, open a mini-app, and complete a purchase in a few taps, with settlement recorded on-chain.

By reducing the need for external websites or separate applications, these flows maximize user conversion-offs and create a more predictable environment for brands and developers.

Wallets such as Tonkeeper and Wallet in Telegram complement this with Telegram-native NFT displays, one-tap purchasing, mini-app integration, and automatic importing of collections, which means that NFTs appear as part of a user's digital media library rather than as a separate technical object.

Underlying these interfaces is TON's NFT 2.0 framework. Updated standards for NFT cores, collections, and royalty logic (TEP-62, TEP-64, and TEP-66) define how royalties are calculated and how marketplaces should handle them.

When an NFT is sold, compliant platforms read royalty parameters from the contract and automatically send the agreed share to the creator's wallet. If a marketplace bypasses these terms, the Mint Platform can update metadata with a royalty_violation flag, and wallets or explorers may mark the asset as having violated royalties.

This hybrid approach keeps core contracts simple while relying on decentralised coordination to encourage adherence, preserving the permissionless nature of the network and giving creators and collectors clearer expectations and protections

These foundations underpinned several NFT launches on TON in 2025, including sticker drops associated with Oleksandr Usyk and Bored Ape Yacht Club, as well as NFT "gifts" released by Snoop Dogg. Each campaign leveraged Telegram-native distribution, TON's low fees, and NFT 2.0 standards to reach large audiences efficiently and to align incentives among creators, platforms, and communities.

Looking ahead: what's next for NFTs on TON in 2026

Looking toward 2026, NFTs on TON are set to deepen their role as tools for the real-world economy in Telegram - rather than as standalone speculative assets. In response, TON Foundation is scaling the network to support billions of NFT interactions, from micro-rewards and ticketing to higher-value rights and memberships.

Building on TON's ability to embed digital assets within Telegram, new partnerships aim to connect Web2 gaming, payments, and creative ecosystems with Web3 infrastructure in ways that feel intuitive to end users.

NFTs can act as portable, verifiable records that move with users across mini-apps and platforms, helping brands and institutions recognise contributions, grant access, and manage digital rights.

Current applications likely only scratch the surface of what is possible when programmable ownership is embedded in everyday communication, and TON is well positioned to serve as a bridge between Web2 and Web3, supporting the next generation of NFT-powered digital experiences.