TON Application Chain and Polygon team up to launch new TON L2

Correction: The headline originally stated that TON and Polygon had teamed up to create an Ethereum L2. This has been corrected.

The TON Application Chain (TAC) and Polygon Labs are set to bring Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) functionality to the TON ecosystem.

In a July 9 announcement, the TON Application Chain and Polygon announced that the TON L2 had integrated Polygon CDK and the interoperability protocol Agglayer to bring EVM-compatible decentralized applications (DApps) to TAC.

It aims to increase the range of applications available to the TON network’s users, including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and identity solutions.

TAC CEO Pavel Altukhov told Cointelegraph that EVM compatibility breaks down barriers to using the TON Network and expects there to be substantial interest in DeFi and GameFi applications following the integration.

"EVM applications on the TON network are not available these days. Bridging would mean that a TON user would have to go through sometimes expensive and complex UX, known to a crypto-native only."

Additionally, he noted the recent integration of USDT on TON as well as the rise of Tap-to-Earn applications that came along with a project called Notcoin.

"The expansion of the mini apps ecosystem has driven the growth of 5.8 million monthly active on-chain wallets on Telegram. TAC's integration is expected to amplify this demand further," he added.

By utilizing applications like Wallet in Telegram, the EVM-compatible integration will see Ethereum developers granted access to a large number of users on Telegram, allowing them to implement more real-world crypto applications. Some of the potential use cases cited by the team include DeFi applications, gaming and decentralized identity solutions.

In a July 6 post to X, Messari noted that the number of daily active addresses on the TON network had surpassed Ethereum during the month of June.

TAC’s founding team includes Curve founder Michael Egerov and the team behind The Open Protocol (TOP), which offers crypto wallet functionality from within the Telegram app.

Moving forward, Altukhov said TAC was looking to raise an additional $5 million in an external funding round.

The statement describes TAC as a layer-2 network built on TON designed to bring EVM-based decentralized applications to TON and Telegram users.

Rise of phishing attacks on TON

Despite the recent success of the TON ecosystem — which has been bolstered by a significant uptick in trading activity of new tokens on the network — there has also been a rise in phishing attacks on the blockchain.

Related: Binance integrates USDT on TON, opens transactions

On June 24, SlowMist founder Yu Xian warned the Telegram ecosystem was “too free,” with phishing links spread through the platform’s message groups, airdrops and other “deceptive methods.”

Although the Telegram messenger typically requires phone numbers to be tied to an account, Xian explained that phishing risks were higher for users with anonymous numbers.

Users of this nature do not have accounts linked to SIM cards, and as such, their accounts can be lost if they are phished by bad actors on the platform.

As of April, Telegram has an estimated 196 million daily active users and 800 million monthly active users, according to BankMyCell.

Update (July 9 at 11:37 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from TAC CEO Pavel Altukhov.

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