NFTs on TON

NFTs (Non‑Fungible Tokens) are unique digital assets that represent ownership of a specific item—art, music, video, domain, Telegram username, or anonymous number. On the TON blockchain each NFT is a separate smart contract, which allows its address to be calculated from the collection and token number without a centralized index. According to Tonstat, more than 11 million NFTs have been issued on TON.

TON NFT standard#

The TON NFT standard defines the required fields and transfer logic for an NFT contract. Every NFT contract stores the owner, metadata (image, name, description, content link, attributes), and a transfer method. Collections are parent contracts that register numbered NFTs and expose methods to retrieve each token’s content.

Distributed addressing vs. Ethereum

Unlike Ethereum’s ERC‑721, where all tokens of a collection reside in a single contract, TON’s distributed architecture gives each NFT its own contract. The address of an NFT can be derived deterministically from its collection address and token number, eliminating a single point of failure and improving scalability through sharding.

NFT royalties#

The original NFT standard did not include a royalty mechanism. TEP‑66 introduced on‑chain royalty parameters: the recipient address and the royalty share percentage. Marketplaces that support the standard read these fields and automatically forward the specified portion of each resale to the creator. Details are available in the TEP‑66 specification.

Soulbound Tokens (SBT)#

Soulbound Tokens are non‑transferable NFTs. Their transfer function always reverts, making them suitable as certificates, reputation badges, or proof of participation. Issuers can revoke an SBT, and owners may burn it. The SBT standard is described in TEP‑85.

Compressed NFTs (cNFTs)#

Compressed NFTs are an experimental format designed for very large collections. A cNFT is minted as a regular NFT only when first accessed; the collection contract stores a Merkle root of all token hashes. This “lazy” minting reduces gas costs and on‑chain storage, while metadata can be kept off‑chain (e.g., cloud storage or IPFS).

Minting and burning#

Minting

Individual NFT or full collection – use the Getgems service to upload media, fill metadata fields, and pay the minting fee (≈ 0.07 TON).
Programmatic minting – follow the step‑by‑step tutorial in the TON developer docs.

Burning

Sending an NFT to the designated “zero” address permanently disables it, as no private key can control that address. The address is documented in the TON blockchain explorer.

Use cases#

Digital art, music, and video assets
Telegram usernames and anonymous numbers
.ton domains via TON DNS
Event tickets (e.g., The Gateway conference)
Rankings and identity verification through SBTs in TON Society
Access control for services and websites
In‑game items such as cards in Fanton

NFT marketplaces on TON#

Getgems – the largest volume marketplace.
Fragment – focuses on Telegram usernames and anonymous numbers.
TON Diamonds – specialized platform for curated collections.
Disintar – alternative marketplace with diverse listings.