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Accept TON Payments: TonConnect Checkout for Telegram Builders

· 4 min read
ton telegram tonconnect guide

TON is the one chain most crypto payment gateways ignore — and the one most Telegram builders actually need. If you run a Telegram bot, a mini-app, or any product where your customers already live inside Telegram, asking them to leave the app to pay is where conversions die.

MutoPay now accepts TON natively. Buyers tap a button, TonConnect opens their Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet, they confirm, and you settle in TON or USDT-on-TON directly in your own wallet.

Who this is for

  • Telegram bot and mini-app builders who want in-chat checkout without redirecting users to an exchange
  • Gaming and tipping products where micropayments and speed matter more than fee optimization
  • Merchants in regions where TON adoption outpaces EVM — TON’s footprint in Telegram-heavy markets is hard to match

Why TON specifically

The buyer is already in Telegram. TonConnect is the native wallet protocol — no QR code dance, no “which RPC am I on?” confusion, no browser extension to install. One tap opens the wallet app they already use, they approve, and you’re done.

On the merchant side, TON settlement gives you two native options:

  • USDT-on-TON — the stablecoin path. No volatility, ~1 second finality, near-zero fees.
  • Native TON — for merchants who want TON exposure, commonly because they pay TON-denominated costs themselves.

Both settle directly into your TON wallet. MutoPay never custodies funds.

How the checkout looks

customer wallet  ─── TonConnect ──▶  MutoPay  ──▶  your TON wallet
   (Tonkeeper)                                     (USDT or TON)

Three boxes, one signature, one on-chain transaction. No bridges, no manual deposits, no KYC step for the buyer.

If a customer wants to pay from a different chain — say, USDC on Base — MutoPay handles the bridge into TON in the background. The buyer picks a token, the merchant still receives USDT-on-TON.

Setup in five steps

  1. Create a merchant account at mutopay.com/dashboard/register.
  2. Set TON as your settlement chain. In the dashboard, open Settings → Settlement, pick TON as the chain and USDT or TON as the token.
  3. Paste your TON wallet address. This is where every payment will land. MutoPay validates the format on save.
  4. Create your first payment link from the dashboard or via the API: 
    curl -X POST https://mutopay.com/api/payments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 25,
    "currency": "USD",
    "metadata": { "order_id": "tg-bot-7421" }
  }'
    Your settlement chain and token come from your merchant settings — you don’t pass them on every call.
  5. Send the returned payment_url to your customer. On the payment page they’ll see the TonConnect button first. One tap, one approval, done.

If you’d rather configure settlement via API, the equivalent is a single PUT:

curl -X PUT https://mutopay.com/api/dashboard/settlement \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <merchant-jwt>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "preferred_chain_id": "ton",
    "preferred_token": "USDT",
    "wallet_address": "EQ..."
  }'

Webhooks

When the TonConnect transaction confirms, MutoPay fires a payment.completed webhook to the URL you configured. Signature header is X-MutoPay-Signature: sha256=<hex> — verify it with HMAC-SHA256 and your webhook secret, then fulfil the order.

FAQ

Which TON wallets work? Any TonConnect-compatible wallet: Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet, Wallet inside Telegram, OpenMask, and anything else that speaks the TonConnect 2 protocol.

How fast does a TON payment settle? Usually 1–3 seconds after the buyer approves in their wallet. Our monitor picks up the confirmation on the next cron tick and fires your webhook.

What are the fees? MutoPay charges 0.25% per transaction. TON network fees are sub-cent and paid by the buyer.

Can customers pay from non-TON chains? Yes. If a buyer picks USDC on Ethereum or USDT on BSC, MutoPay routes through Rubic and bridges into USDT-on-TON automatically. You still receive on TON.

Is my wallet custodial? No. Every payment settles directly to the TON address you configured. MutoPay never holds funds.

Also see

Ready to accept TON? Create a merchant account — the first payment takes about ten minutes from signup.