Alyona Shmalko serves as Lead Ecosystem Developer at the TON Foundation, where she supports startups building on The Open Network. She has been involved in cryptocurrency since 2021, with prior experience in Web3 accelerators, event management, and tokenized real estate. Fluent in English and Italian, she is currently based in Dubai.
Education#
Shmalko earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with honors from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). She later completed a Master’s degree in the same field at LUISS University in Italy.
Career#
From September 2022 to November 2023, Shmalko was a Project Management Officer at Qowner, a tokenized real-estate investment platform. She led the MVP launch and established workflows for buying and tokenizing property.
Between April 2022 and December 2023, she worked as Lead Event Organizer at SHP.agency, managing three major events in Cyprus — Linq, Top Creators, and Crypto MeetUp — each drawing over 400 attendees and securing speakers and sponsors from Google, Meta, TechCrunch, TikTok, Wolt, and Nexters.
From January 2023 to December 2023, she was Co-Founder and COO of XFounders, a Web3 accelerator offering online education and offline bootcamps for early-stage startups.
Shmalko joined the TON Foundation in December 2023 as Ecosystem Manager, before moving into the Ecosystem Lead role in February 2024. In this capacity, she supports developer teams leveraging TON infrastructure, helps onboard new users, and strengthens ties with Telegram.
Public presence#
Shmalko shares blockchain and technology updates via her Telegram channel and X (Twitter) account. Outside of work, she enjoys sports and cooking.
Impact#
Under her leadership, the TON ecosystem has grown significantly.
She is also actively involved in initiatives to scale Web3 adoption, with a long-term target for TON.
See also#
- The Open Network
- TON Foundation
- TON Ecosystem
- Pavel Durov
- Telegram Wallet