TON airdrops: Telegram mini apps, Jettons and traps

Telegram plus TON

On most chains an airdrop starts on a website. On TON it often starts in a chat. Telegram describes Mini Apps as web interfaces, built with JavaScript, that open inside Telegram, and lists seven ways to launch one, including a profile button, a keyboard or inline button, a menu button and a direct t.me link. Every one of those entry points can be created by anyone who makes a bot.

That is the central safety fact about TON ecosystems. A mini app looks like part of Telegram, but its content is a web page run by whoever operates the bot. The same link format that opens an honest game opens a phishing page. Our Telegram airdrops guide covers the Telegram side in depth, and this page focuses on the chain.

TON, Toncoin and Gram

Naming has moved recently, and that creates an opening for impersonation. The official ton.org now uses TON for the blockchain and Gram (GRAM) for the coin, and says the coin was also known as Toncoin. Third-party notices from exchanges and custodians that we found reported the rename took effect in June 2026, as a change of name, ticker and logo with balances and addresses untouched. We could not open a first-party statement of the date, so treat the date as reported, not confirmed.

Wallet contracts and addresses

On TON, wallets are smart contracts. The standard contracts page says they act as proxies: they receive an off-chain external message, verify the owner’s signature, and send an internal message on-chain. Wallet V5 is called the most modern consumer version and adds gasless transfers; V4 is the previous version and supports custom plugins.

The addresses page explains that an account ID is the hash of the contract’s initial code and data, so the address is fixed at deployment, and that an uninitialised account can only become active by receiving a matching state init. This explains an odd experience new users have: you can receive funds at an address that has never been deployed.

The formats page distinguishes two forms. The raw form is workchain, a colon, and the account ID, with no checksum. The user-friendly form is a 36-byte wrapper encoded in base64 or base64url that adds a flags byte and a CRC16 checksum. The flags decide whether an address is bounceable, which means funds return if the recipient cannot accept them.

The docs advise non-bounceable addresses for wallets, because funds are credited even if the recipient is not yet deployed, and bounceable ones for custom smart contracts. They also advise checking whether a recipient is initialised before sending. A testnet-only flag marks addresses that must not be accepted on mainnet.

Address format checker

This helper only reads the first character and the length, using the prefixes in the table. It cannot validate the checksum or tell you whether an address is yours, so treat it as a sanity check before a first transfer.

Jettons and fake tokens

The Jettons page says a Jetton master contract is the central registry holding metadata and total supply, and each user has their own Jetton wallet contract holding their balance. The standard contracts page calls Jettons TON’s counterpart to ERC-20.

Because anyone can deploy a Jetton master with any name and image, a token that appears in a wallet proves nothing. The TON docs pages we opened do not discuss fake Jettons, so this is our judgement: identify the real master address from the project’s own site, and compare it to what a trusted explorer shows. If you hold a token that arrived unasked, do not interact with it.

Wallets and explorers

Wallet naming also shifted. The Keeper site says Tonkeeper is now Keeper and describes it as self-custodial, with keys on your device. The Walt site says it is formerly known as Wallet in Telegram, with a custodial default in which Walt manages the keys, and an optional non-custodial DeFi Account where you hold a seed phrase and cannot recover it if lost. On ton.org, a built-in Telegram wallet is described as non-custodial. These descriptions come from three different sites and may not map one to one, so check which mode you are in before relying on it. Our custodial vs non-custodial guide explains the stakes: airdrops tied to a wallet address will not reach you if an exchange or custodian controls it.

The TON docs also show wallet.ton.org, a self-custodial web wallet that needs no installation. Its documentation tells you to save the 24 words, notes that anyone with them can take control of the wallet, and says the password you set encrypts the mnemonic in browser local storage.

For explorers, Tonviewer shows wallets, tokens, NFTs and recent transactions, and ton.org links to Tonscan. The docs name a low-level developer explorer at explorer.toncoin.org. Tonscan failed to load when we checked, so we cannot describe it beyond its title. TON Connect is the standard that links an app to your wallet over an end-to-end encrypted session; the app can read your address and request signatures but does not handle your keys. The risk is therefore in what you sign, not in the connection.

What has happened: Notcoin

The documented TON case in our tracker is Notcoin. It started as a tap-to-earn clicker inside Telegram, launched NOT on TON in May 2024, and let players claim a balance in the same mini app. According to Decrypt, the claim window ended on Sunday 16 June 2024, a month after launch. Our notes say about 210 million NOT from unclaimed Notcoin Clicker balances were listed as burned on the official site, with a total burned of 233,537,251 NOT at the time of checking. The official notcoin.org front page we opened showed only a brief landing page, so the dates come from the third-party report and the burn figures from our earlier look at the token page.

What it teaches is general. Eligibility was playing, not capital. Delivery was a claim inside the mini app, not a separate website. And the window was fixed: unclaimed balances did not wait. Our records list no other verified TON distribution, so we do not generalise from one example. For how Telegram-native points compare with exchange-style programs, see points programs explained.

Fees

The fee documentation says the total fee is the sum of several components, which we list because they explain why your wallet may show more than one number:

• Storage fees depend on an account’s bits and cells and are set in network configuration.
• Compute fees are measured in gas. The docs say network configuration defines gas prices and users cannot override them.
• Forward fees cover sending messages and depend on message size.
• Action and import fees apply to certain internal and inbound external messages.

The page gives no concrete price or typical transfer cost, so we do not state one. Read the amount in your wallet before signing. The gasless transfers page describes a model where a relayer covers network fees and is paid in the token you are moving, so you do not need the native coin. The docs also note that the relayer’s fee is set by the relayer and is not a network gas price, which is a good reason to read the total before you agree.

TON scam patterns

• Fake mini apps. Any bot can launch a web page inside Telegram. Copy the bot name from the project’s official site, not from a group chat.
• Claim bots after the window. Notcoin’s claim ended on 16 June 2024. A bot offering one now is not real.
• Rename-driven swaps. No migration is needed per the reported notices. A swap page is a trap.
• Unasked Jettons and NFTs. Do not interact with them. Identify the real master contract before buying or approving anything.
• Seed-phrase requests. No bot, support account or mini app needs your 24 words. The wallet docs warn that anyone with the mnemonic can take control.
• Address-poisoning style tricks. We have not found an official TON source on this. As a precaution, copy addresses from your own wallet or explorer, not from a message, and compare the checksum-bearing form in full.

For the wider catalogue, see crypto airdrop scams and how to spot a legitimate airdrop.

Safe setup

1. 1

   Choose custody on purpose

   If a wallet inside Telegram is custodial, tokens you earn there are held by the provider. Decide whether that suits the rewards you expect.

2. 2

   Use a separate wallet for experiments

   Keep savings in a self-custodial wallet you rarely use. Do mini app experiments from another one with little in it.

3. 3

   Write down the 24 words offline

   Never store them as a screenshot or note on a synced device, and never type them into a bot.

4. 4

   Verify the bot from the project’s site

   Open the official site, follow its link to Telegram, and compare the bot handle you land on.

5. 5

   Read each signature request

   A TON Connect request shows what you are being asked to sign. If you do not understand it, decline.

The same ideas appear in our burner wallet guide.

Is anything live right now?

We do not track a verified active airdrop on TON. Notcoin’s claim is closed, and our other records do not show a live, officially documented TON distribution. That does not rule out new Telegram-based campaigns, which launch often and can fade fast. It means that a bot offering a claim in a chat has not met the standard on our verification page. For the broader field, see ended airdrops, potential airdrops and the ecosystems overview.

What we would check first

Written by the airdrop.promo Editorial Team. See how we verify. Educational content only, not financial advice.