Validators process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

The Open Network (TON) is a smart contract platform for decentralized applications (a blockchain). The Open Network was founded by Telegram and launched in 2019.

GRAM holders own and govern the protocol. They currently take (burn) a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue). The Open Network's investors include KuCoin Ventures, MEXC Ventures, DWF Labs, etc.

governance

github

twitter

etherscan

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Blockchains (L1)

# TON Fees Methodology

## 1. Overview

The TON fees metric measures the total daily fees generated on the TON blockchain, representing the economic activity and network usage costs. This metric combines transaction processing fees with message forwarding fees to capture the complete fee structure of TON's unique message-based architecture. The calculation aggregates all fees paid by users for transaction execution and inter-contract message forwarding, converted to USD for standardized reporting.

## 2. Data sources

- **TON transaction records**: Native TON blockchain transaction data containing base transaction fees and metadata
- **TON message records**: TON blockchain message data with forwarding fees for inter-contract communication
- **End-of-day price feeds**: TON asset prices used for USD conversion

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Transaction fee extraction

- **Purpose**: Extract base transaction processing fees from TON blockchain transactions
- **Logic**: Pull all transaction records from TON blockchain data, capturing the `transaction_fees` field which represents the base cost of processing each transaction. Include metadata like `block_timestamp`, `transaction_hash`, and `workchain_id` for proper identification and aggregation. Filter for relevant time periods using incremental processing boundaries.
- **Key fields**: `transaction_fees` (base processing fee), `transaction_hash` (unique identifier), `block_timestamp` (timing), `workchain_id` (TON chain identifier)

### Component B: Message forwarding fee extraction

- **Purpose**: Capture forwarding fees for outgoing messages in TON's message-based architecture
- **Logic**: Extract message records from TON blockchain data, focusing specifically on outgoing messages by filtering where `direction` equals 'out'. Collect the `forward_fee` amounts that users pay for inter-contract message forwarding and communication. Link messages to their originating transactions using `transaction_hash` as the connection key.
- **Key fields**: `forward_fee` (message forwarding cost), `transaction_hash` (transaction linkage), `direction` (message flow direction), `message_hash` (unique message identifier)

### Component C: Fee aggregation per transaction

- **Purpose**: Combine all fee components for each individual transaction
- **Logic**: Join transaction data with their associated outgoing messages using `transaction_hash`. Sum all `forward_fee` amounts per transaction to get total `outgoing_forward_fees`. Handle cases where transactions have no outgoing messages by setting forward fees to zero. Calculate comprehensive fee amount by adding `transaction_fees` plus `outgoing_forward_fees` for each transaction.
- **Key fields**: `fees` (total combined fee amount), `outgoing_forward_fees` (aggregated forwarding costs), `transaction_fees` (base transaction cost)

### Component D: Daily time aggregation

- **Purpose**: Group individual transaction fees into daily totals
- **Logic**: Apply daily time boundaries using timestamp truncation to day level. Group all transactions by their day of execution, maintaining workchain and other metadata. Set `timestamp_grain` to 'day' for consistent metric formatting. This creates daily snapshots of total fee activity across the TON network.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` (daily boundary), `timestamp_grain` (aggregation level), daily sum of `fees`

### Final aggregation

- **Combining components**: Sum all individual transaction fees within each day to get total daily fee volume across the entire TON network
- **Currency conversion**: Fee amounts are converted to USD using end-of-day TON asset prices, where amounts are normalized by decimal precision
- **Time aggregation**: Apply daily boundaries using timestamp truncation, ensuring consistent daily reporting periods
- **Final calculation**: The metric represents the total USD value of all transaction fees and message forwarding fees paid on TON blockchain per day, providing a comprehensive measure of network economic activity and usage costs

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Total value users pay to use a protocol (gross fees, user-paid fees).

TONGRAM

Fees

Fees

Competitive landscape