Grants & Bounties

Bounties

We aim to reward valuable contributors and invite them to use their skills and knowledge to develop the TON ecosystem with us.

The bounty program covers following community initiatives:

• Developer tooling and smart contracts
• Community tools
• Educational materials
• Onboarding resources

Program guidelines

Grants

Grants are aimed at supporting ambitious teams in initial product development or the migration of a successful existing protocol or DApp to TON from another blockchain.

Our main focus is on Telegram Mini Apps with simple onboarding, smooth user experience and a strong social element. Importantly, applicants are expected to demonstrate a clear marketing and product strategy to attract and retain the user.

Here is a quick overview of the product categories we are looking for:

1. Telegram Mini Apps: Social Web3 Use Cases

This category is for social B2C applications built within Telegram with a clear vision of achieving virality and attracting and retaining users.

Examples:

• SocialFi: Telegram Mini Apps (TMA) that help creators monetize their social media content (e.g., FriendTech-like cases)

• E-commerce: marketplaces of digital and physical goods with features like sharing, gifting, or group buying (e.g. Kaikai-like platforms)

• Utility: daily use TMA with embedded web3 elements (e.g., Calendar, Task tracker)

• Community & Brand management: tools aimed at engaging communities inside Telegram (e.g., Loyalty programs, Ticketing)

• Onboarding platforms: TMA that provide a simple way into web3 through the use of @wallet and/or self-custody TON wallets (e.g., Quests, Educational apps).

2. DeFi

DeFi grants are aimed at enriching the current DeFi landscape on TON Blockchain.

Teams with relevant experience of building DeFi products can get up to $300K in user incentives and $200K in grants

Examples of what we are looking for:

• Lending protocols
• Derivatives DEXs
• DEXs with weighted pools (like Balancer.fi)
• Yield aggregators
• Liquidity layers
• Restaking
• and more

Learn more about DeFi grants

3. GameFi

We are always happy to support web3 games with easy onboarding, viral social mechanics, referral programs, elements of competition (squads, leaderboards, group challenges) and exciting gameplay. While the focus is on games in the form of Telegram Mini Apps, standalone games for PC or mobile are welcome to apply too.

4. Developer Education

This grant category is focused on programs that educate developers to build on TON.

Requirements:

• Relevant expertise
• Initial Research
• Use of Fundamental Concepts
• Detailed Curriculum
• Clear GTM Strategy

5. Other

The last broad category consists of open-source technical projects; commercial projects that improve the TON infrastructure, including the deployment and interaction across DApps and Telegram Mini Apps, and products of other verticals (trading bots, NFT tooling, AI, etc).