TAC Token Rallies 50% as TON Application Chain Launches to Bring DeFi Back to Telegram

The TON Application Chain, also known as TAC, has officially launched its mainnet on Tuesday, July 15, enabling Ethereum-compatible decentralized finance applications to operate within Telegram’s user ecosystem.

With TAC’s mainnet now live, popular Ethereum-based DeFi protocols — including Curve, Morpho, and Euler — are now available on Telegram via the chain, according to a press release shared with The Defiant.

Following the launch, TAC’s native token spiked sharply by more than 50% to $0.0248, though it has retraced to near $0.022 by press time, according to price data from CoinGecko.

Built on CosmosEVM, TAC is a Layer 1 chain that connects Ethereum dApps and developers with Telegram’s over 1 billion monthly active users through what the protocol’s documentation calls a “TON-specific CrossChain Layer.”

TAC is also integrated with infrastructure partners such as LayerZero, RedStone, Blockscout, and Babylon, offering cross-chain messaging and oracle data feeds, according to the press release.

Seeking DeFi

Backed by blockchain development firm The Open Platform (TOP) — which earlier this month reached a $1 billion valuation following a 28.5 million Series A round — TAC claims that it has completed a liquidity campaign that brought in over $800 million in total value locked in collaboration with Turtle Club, a liquidity distribution protocol.

“TAC’s mainnet launch is a major step toward bringing DeFi to the mainstream. By connecting Ethereum dApps with the Telegram ecosystem, TAC unlocks real utility for over a billion users,” said Andrew Klebanov, managing partner at TOP Labs.

TAC’s launch comes six months after Telegram officially restricted blockchain-based Mini Apps to TON-based projects. Under an agreement with the TON Foundation announced in January, all Telegram Mini Apps using blockchain features must run on TON and use the TON Connect protocol, excluding support for other chains or wallet standards.

Commenting on its collaboration with the TON Foundation, Telegram said at the time that it planned to tokenize digital assets “exclusively on TON Blockchain within the platform, including emojis and stickers, among other digital assets, while also tokenizing limited edition gifts as NFTs.”