TON Officially Retires Legacy Toncoin Bridge After Four Years of Service

The Open Network (TON) has announced the official retirement of its legacy Toncoin Bridge, marking the end of an era for one of the network’s earliest and most impactful tools. As of May 10, 2025, users will no longer be able to bridge Toncoin from TON to Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain, though all past cross-chain transfers will remain claimable indefinitely.

The decision follows the successful deprecation of wrapped stablecoin jUSDT earlier this year and reflects TON’s transition into a more advanced, self-sustaining blockchain ecosystem.

Why TON Is Shutting Down Its Legacy Bridge

In its early days, TON lacked the kind of centralized exchange (CEX) listings and native DeFi infrastructure now available. At the time, the Toncoin Bridge served a critical function: allowing users to move Toncoin to Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain to access liquidity via platforms like Uniswap and PancakeSwap.

Even after Toncoin began trading on major CEXs, the bridge remained essential for users wanting to interact with decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which hadn’t yet launched natively on TON. It also became a vital tool for wrapping and transferring assets such as jUSDT.

But times have changed. TON now supports native USDt, has thriving DEXs, and boasts integrations with some of the industry’s most advanced cross-chain protocols, including LayerZero, Stargate, Symbiosis, and Rhino.fi. These modern tools have made the original bridge obsolete, offering users safer, more scalable, and user-friendly ways to move assets across chains without needing to leave the TON network.

Key Reasons for Deprecation

The retirement of the legacy bridge is part of a broader strategy to enhance user safety, streamline infrastructure, and promote adoption of new cross-chain technologies. According to TON, shutting down the old bridge:

Retires outdated infrastructure and reduces attack surfaces

Encourages users to adopt modern cross-chain solutions

Aligns with TON’s growth into a robust, DeFi-capable ecosystem

While bridging from TON to Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain will end on May 10, bridging into TON remains temporarily available. A future deprecation date for inbound transfers will be announced later.

A Look Back: Milestones and Metrics

The Toncoin Bridge launched in stages over four years:

Ethereum Bridge (v1): Launched August 20, 2021

BNB Smart Chain Bridge (v2): Launched October 4, 2021

Token Ethereum Bridge (v3): Launched April 18, 2023 (co-developed with RSquad)

Since inception, the bridges have processed 31,893 transfers, moving more than 101 million TON across chains. Impressively, the system has never suffered a successful hack or exploit, and all historical transactions remain fully accounted for and claimable.

Wrapped Toncoin by the Numbers:

Ethereum: 35,694 holders, over 460,000 transactions

BNB Smart Chain: 113,495 holders, over 2.6 million transactions

Looking Ahead

As part of the sunsetting process, bridge oracles are beginning to withdraw their staked TON, though operations will remain stable and secure during the transition. TON has also indicated that another announcement will follow regarding the eventual deprecation of token transfers as the network leans further into modern cross-chain systems.

The team thanked users and developers who supported the bridge during TON’s formative years. “The next chapter is here—faster, safer, and more connected than ever,” the announcement read.

For those eager to explore what’s next, TON encourages the community to dive into its growing suite of cross-chain integrations and native DeFi tools, signaling a more scalable and interoperable future for Toncoin.

Discover seamless bridging solutions on TON → ton.org/bridges