Tolk Launches on TON Network, Targeting Lower Gas Costs and Developer-Friendly Design

TON Foundation Unveils ‘Tolk’ as New Smart Contract Language, Promises Lower Fees and Faster Deployment

The TON Foundation has launched Tolk, a next-generation smart contract language designed to streamline development on The Open Network (TON) and significantly cut costs for decentralized app builders. The new language replaces the legacy FunC standard, offering enhanced performance and a more developer-friendly experience.

Key Upgrade:

Tolk has been engineered specifically for TON’s asynchronous actor-based architecture. It introduces modern syntax and structural improvements that simplify onboarding for new developers, while maintaining the low-level control required by advanced use cases such as DeFi and gaming.

According to the Foundation, contracts written in Tolk consume up to 40% less gas than those built with FunC—translating to considerable cost savings and improved scalability for high-throughput applications.

“Tolk is a major leap forward for our developer community,” said Anatoly Makosov, Core Developer at TON. “It combines simplicity with power, giving builders the tools they need without compromising on performance or flexibility.”

Migration & Tooling Support:

Tolk ships with a complete development toolkit, including migration options for existing contracts and support for popular IDEs. The Foundation views this upgrade as essential to reducing friction in smart contract deployment, especially for projects in DeFi, gaming, and social platforms.

This initiative is part of TON’s broader strategy to attract more developers and scale its ecosystem by modernizing its programming infrastructure.

Market Reaction & Technical Analysis

Despite the milestone launch, TON’s native token (TON-USD) experienced bearish price action during the same period.

• Price Range: The token dropped from $3.26 to $3.17 between July 18 and July 19 UTC, marking a 2.85% decline.
• Volatility: Price swung between an intraday high of $3.31 and a low of $3.16—a 4.73% spread.
• Resistance & Support: A sharp sell-off at 20:00 UTC on July 18, with 6.18 million tokens traded, confirmed $3.23 as short-term resistance. $3.16 emerged as key support after repeated buyer interest at that level.
• Volume Trends: Trading volume collapsed to just 90,006 tokens by the session’s close, signaling waning sell pressure and possible buyer reentry.
• Final Hour: From 13:09 to 14:08 UTC on July 19, TON dipped a further 0.81%, briefly touching $3.18 before retreating again to $3.16.

Outlook

The Tolk launch reinforces TON’s long-term strategy to become a hub for performant, developer-friendly decentralized apps. While short-term price action reflects broader market volatility, technical signals hint that buyers may soon regain control—especially if support at $3.16 holds and developer interest continues to accelerate.