TON DNS: What .ton Domains Are and How to Link One to Your Wallet

A .ton domain is a human-readable name, such as yourname.ton, that lives on the TON blockchain and can point to a wallet address, a website or other resources. Once you link it to your wallet, people can send TON and tokens to the name instead of copying a long address. You do this by setting the domain's wallet record, which costs a small network fee and takes a single confirmation in your wallet.

This guide explains what TON DNS actually is, how .ton names are bought and kept, how to link one to a wallet safely, and what to check before you trust a name someone gives you. It is an explainer, not investment advice: domains are sometimes traded speculatively, and nothing here suggests buying one as an investment.

What TON DNS is

TON DNS is a naming service built into the TON blockchain. It does for blockchain addresses what the ordinary internet's DNS does for websites: it turns something long and machine-friendly into something short and memorable.

A TON wallet address is a long string of letters, digits and symbols. Nobody remembers one, and copying it by hand invites mistakes. A .ton name is a label that a wallet app can look up and translate into the real address at the moment you send.

Each domain is an NFT

Every .ton domain is a token on the blockchain, specifically an NFT (a unique, non-interchangeable token). Whoever holds that NFT in their wallet controls the domain. That has three practical consequences:

• Control follows the wallet. If you lose access to the wallet holding the domain, you lose control of the domain. There is no registrar to email and no password reset.
• Domains can be transferred and sold like any other NFT, which is why you will see them on NFT marketplaces.
• The records live on chain. What the domain points to is stored in the domain's own smart contract, and anyone can read it.

Records: what a domain can point to

A domain does not just "belong" to a wallet. It holds a small set of records, each describing a different kind of destination. TON's documentation describes several categories:

• Wallet record. The address that should receive funds sent to the name. This is the one most people care about and the one this guide focuses on.
• Site record. Points the name at a TON Site, a website served over TON's own network rather than the ordinary web. Visitors need a TON-aware browser or proxy to open it.
• Storage record. Points at a file or set of files kept in TON Storage, TON's decentralised file storage.
• Next resolver. Hands lookups for subdomains (such as shop.yourname.ton) to another contract, so a domain owner can run their own subdomains.

You can set one, several or none. A domain with no wallet record still exists and is still yours; it simply cannot receive payments by name.

Owning a domain is not the same as linking it

This is the point that confuses most newcomers. The wallet that holds the domain NFT and the wallet the domain points to can be different. Buying a domain puts the NFT in your wallet, but the wallet record may still be empty, or after a resale it may still hold an old address. Linking is a separate, deliberate step.

.ton names and t.me usernames

Telegram usernames bought on Fragment are also tokens on TON. Fragment's own pages list each username in three forms: the username itself, the ordinary t.me web link, and a "TON Web 3.0 address" ending in .t.me. So a collectible username such as a hypothetical @examplename is shown with an address of examplename.t.me.

These are a separate namespace from .ton domains. A .ton name is bought through the TON DNS auction; a .t.me name comes with a username bought on Fragment. Whether a particular wallet app resolves .t.me names, and how their records are managed, depends on the app, so check yours before relying on one. For how collectible usernames work in general, see our guide to Telegram usernames on Fragment and the wider Fragment explainer.

Who a .ton domain is useful for

A domain is not something everyone needs. It earns its keep when people regularly send you funds or need to find your resources.

• Channel owners who accept tips or payments in TON. A name in the channel description is easier to read, easier to check and harder to tamper with than a pasted address.
• Freelancers and small businesses paid in crypto, who want a stable payment name they can keep even if they move to a new wallet.
• Projects with a TON Site or stored files, for whom the site and storage records matter more than the wallet record.
• People who simply make many transfers between their own wallets and want fewer chances to paste the wrong string.

If you receive a payment twice a year, a domain adds a renewal to remember and little else. Copying an address carefully, or using a QR code, is fine.

How buying a .ton domain works

New .ton names are sold by auction on TON's official domain site, dns.ton.org. You connect a TON wallet, search for the name you want, and either bid in a running auction or start one.

At the time of writing, TON's official pages describe these rules. They can change, so read the current rules on the domain site before you bid:

• Length. Names must be between 4 and 126 characters; shorter names cannot be registered.
• Auctions. A free name is sold to the highest bidder. Each new bid has to beat the previous one by a minimum step. Starting prices are higher for shorter names, because short names are scarcer.
• Expired names go back to auction, as described in the renewal section below.

When the auction ends, the domain NFT is delivered to the winning wallet. Losing bids are returned by the auction contract, minus network fees.

Before you start

Run through this list before bidding or linking anything:

1. Use a self-custodial wallet you control. You need a wallet where you hold the recovery phrase and that can show and manage NFTs. A custodial wallet run by an exchange, or a custodial wallet inside an app, may not let you hold a domain NFT or sign the transaction that edits its records. Our comparison of Tonkeeper and Telegram Wallet explains the custodial difference, and Telegram Wallet explained covers what the built-in wallet is.
2. Back up the recovery phrase offline. The domain will be exactly as safe as that phrase.
3. Keep some TON for fees. Bidding, linking and renewing each need a transaction, and each transaction costs a network fee.
4. Decide which wallet the name should point to. It does not have to be the wallet holding the domain. Many people keep the domain in one wallet and point it at another.
5. Open the official site by typing its address. Search ads and messages can lead to lookalike sites that ask you to "connect" a wallet and then drain it.

Step by step: buying a name

1. Open dns.ton.org in your browser and connect your wallet using the site's connect button. Approve the connection in your wallet app. Connecting only shares your address; it does not move funds.
2. Type the name you want, without the .ton ending, and search.
3. Read the result. It will show whether the name is free, in an auction, or already owned.
4. If it is free or in an auction, enter your bid. The site shows the minimum you can offer.
5. Confirm the bid transaction in your wallet. Read the amount and the destination contract on the confirmation screen before approving.
6. Watch the auction. If someone outbids you, your bid comes back and you can bid again.
7. When the auction ends in your favour, check your wallet's NFT or collectibles section. The domain should appear there.

If the name is already owned, the official site cannot sell it to you. The owner might list it on an NFT marketplace, but treat any private "I'll sell you the domain" offer in a chat as a probable scam. See crypto scams on Telegram for the common patterns.

How to link a .ton domain to your wallet

Linking means writing a wallet address into the domain's wallet record. Only the wallet that currently holds the domain NFT can do this.

Step by step on the domain site

1. Open dns.ton.org and connect the wallet that holds the domain.
2. Open your domain's page. The site lists your domains, or you can search for the name.
3. Find the wallet address field. It may be labelled as the wallet, or as the address the name resolves to.
4. Paste the address the name should point to. If you want it to point to the wallet you are connected with, many interfaces offer a button that fills in the current address.
5. Check the pasted address character by character at the start and the end. Clipboard-swapping malware exists and swaps a copied address for an attacker's.
6. Save. Your wallet will ask you to confirm a transaction to the domain's contract. The amount is a small fee to cover the network cost.
7. Wait for confirmation. TON transactions usually settle quickly, but give it a minute before testing.

Step by step inside a wallet app

Some self-custodial wallets let you manage domains without visiting the domain site. The general shape is:

1. Open the NFT or collectibles section and tap the domain.
2. Look for an option to link, connect or set the wallet address. Not every wallet offers this, and the wording varies.
3. Choose the address, usually the current wallet, and confirm the transaction.

If your wallet has no such option, use the domain site. The result on chain is the same.

Check that the link works

Never announce a domain until you have tested it.

1. Open a different wallet, or ask a friend, and start a transfer.
2. Type the domain, including .ton, into the recipient field.
3. The wallet should show the address it resolved. Compare it with the address you linked.
4. Send a very small test amount and confirm it arrives where you expect.

You can also look the domain up in a TON blockchain explorer, which shows the domain's current records and its transaction history. Our guide on reading a TON transaction on an explorer shows how to read what you see there.

What the sender's wallet does

When someone types your name, their wallet asks the blockchain for the domain's current wallet record and fills in that address. The lookup happens at sending time. That has two effects worth understanding:

• Changing the record redirects future payments only. Anything already sent stays where it went.
• The sender trusts whatever the record says at that moment. If the domain changes hands or the record is edited, the name will point somewhere new without the sender noticing. That is why a domain is a convenience, not proof of identity.

Keeping your domain: renewal

A .ton domain is not bought once forever. TON's documentation describes a yearly renewal: the owner sends a small amount of TON to the domain's contract at least once a year. Any change to the domain's records also counts as activity, but the safe habit is a deliberate renewal.

What happens if you forget, according to TON's documentation at the time of writing:

• There is no grace period once the year has passed.
• After more than a year without renewal, anyone can trigger the domain's release.
• A released domain goes back to auction, and you have no special right to win it back.

Step by step: renewing

1. Open the domain's page on dns.ton.org with the holding wallet connected, or open it in a wallet app that supports domains.
2. Look for the renew or extend option. The page usually shows when the domain was last renewed or when it expires.
3. Confirm the small renewal transaction.
4. Check that the expiry date on the page has moved forward.
5. Put a reminder in your calendar for well before next year's date. A domain lost to a missed renewal cannot be reclaimed.

Moving, selling or buying a domain second-hand

Because a domain is an NFT, it can be sent to another wallet or sold on a marketplace that lists TON NFTs. Three things about records catch people out.

When you move a domain to your own new wallet

The wallet record is stored in the domain, not in the wallet. Moving the NFT does not automatically change where the name points. If you are retiring the old wallet, update the record to the new wallet's address after the move, then test it.

When you sell a domain

Before you hand it over, decide whether to clear or change the wallet record. If you leave your address in it, payments meant for the buyer may reach you until they edit it, which creates awkward refund conversations. Also remove the name from your channel, profile and website, or people will keep sending to a name you no longer control.

When you buy a domain second-hand

Assume the records still point wherever the previous owner left them. Immediately after the purchase:

1. Open the domain's page and read every record.
2. Set the wallet record to your own address, and clear site or storage records you do not use.
3. Test with a small transfer.
4. Only then publish the name.

Until you do this, money sent to "your" new name may go to the seller.

Using a .ton domain on Telegram

Telegram channel owners are the main reason this guide sits in a Telegram directory, so here is how a domain fits into a channel.

Putting it in your channel

The simplest use is a line in the channel description or a pinned post saying where readers can send tips or payments. A name is easy to type and easy for a reader to check against what they see in their wallet. Our guide to writing a channel description covers where such details fit, and the pinned message examples show how to keep payment details visible.

Write the full name with its ending, and add one line of instruction such as "check that your wallet shows the address starting with the same characters as the one in our pinned post". That gives readers a second check that does not depend on the name alone.

Do not point a domain at an exchange deposit address

Exchanges often give every customer the same deposit address and tell deposits apart by a memo or comment. A domain only carries an address, not a memo. If your domain points to an exchange deposit address, people who send to the name without the right memo create deposits the exchange cannot match to you. Point the domain at a wallet you control instead. Our TON memo and comment guide explains why memos matter.

Telegram's own payment options are separate

Telegram Stars and the payment systems inside Telegram do not use .ton domains. A domain only helps when someone sends TON or TON-based tokens from a wallet. If you are deciding how to take payments at all, compare the options in Telegram Stars vs TON vs card payments.

When a domain does not resolve

If a sender types your name and their wallet shows an error, an empty recipient or the wrong address, work through these causes in order.

The sender's wallet does not support .ton names

How to recognise it: the wallet treats the name as an invalid address, or offers no lookup at all, while other wallets resolve it fine.

1. Ask the sender which app they use.
2. Have them try a wallet that supports TON DNS, or send them the plain address from your pinned post.
3. If many of your readers hit this, publish the plain address beside the name.

The record was never saved

How to recognise it: the domain page or an explorer shows no wallet record, or shows the old one.

1. Open your wallet's transaction history and look for the transaction to the domain's contract.
2. If it is missing or failed, it usually means the wallet lacked TON for the fee or the confirmation was dismissed.
3. Top up a little TON and repeat the linking steps.

If the transaction succeeded but the record still looks old, refresh the page after a minute and check again in an explorer, which reads the chain directly.

A typo or a missing ending

How to recognise it: the name resolves, but to a stranger's address, or not at all.

1. Compare the name the sender typed with yours, letter by letter.
2. Check that they typed the .ton ending, not .com or nothing.
3. If a lookalike resolves to a stranger, nothing can recall a payment already sent there. Warn your readers in a pinned post.

The domain has expired or changed hands

How to recognise it: the domain page shows an auction, a new owner, or an expiry date in the past.

1. Check the page with your wallet connected. If the NFT is no longer in your wallet, the domain is no longer yours.
2. Remove the name from every place you published it, today.
3. If it is in auction, you can bid like anyone else, but you have no priority.

Site, storage and subdomain records

Most channel owners only need the wallet record, but the others are worth understanding so you know what you are looking at on the domain page.

The site record

A TON Site is identified by a network address on TON's own peer-to-peer network rather than an ordinary server IP. The site record stores that identifier. Setting it is useful only if you actually run a TON Site; ordinary visitors on ordinary browsers cannot open TON Sites without a TON-aware proxy or browser. If you just want your channel to have a website, a normal web domain is simpler.

The storage record

TON Storage spreads files across nodes that agree to keep them. The storage record points to a stored set of files by its identifier. Like the site record, it matters to people publishing content on TON, not to people receiving tips.

Subdomains

The next-resolver record lets you hand lookups for names under your domain to another contract. A project might use it to give each team member a name such as alice.project.ton. Running a resolver is a developer task; TON's documentation describes the contracts involved. If you never set this record, subdomains of your name simply do not resolve, which is the safe default.

What to do next

• Write the yearly renewal date in your calendar now, with a reminder a few weeks earlier.
• Note in your password manager or notebook which wallet holds the domain and which wallet it points to.
• If you run a channel, add the name to your pinned payment post and the description, then ask one trusted reader to test it.
• If you plan to receive meaningful sums, read how to spot Telegram scams so you recognise fake "domain support" messages early.

Safety: what a domain does and does not prove

A domain is useful precisely because it is readable, and that readability is what scammers exploit.

Lookalike names

Anyone can register a name that looks like yours: an extra letter, a swapped character, a hyphen, or a long name that starts the same way. In a hurried glance, these pass. If you publish a domain, tell your readers to type it rather than copy it from a forwarded message, and pin it so there is one trusted source.

Domains are not identity

A .ton name proves only that whoever holds the NFT chose those letters. It does not prove the holder is the brand or person the name suggests. A domain named after a well-known project may belong to a stranger. Before paying a name you saw in a message, confirm it through a source you already trust, such as the project's official channel. Our guide to verifying a crypto project's official Telegram shows how.

Fake domain sites and "renewal" messages

Two scams target domain owners specifically:

• Fake renewal warnings. A message claims your domain is about to expire and links to a site that asks you to connect your wallet and approve a transaction. Renew only from the official site or your own wallet, reached by typing the address yourself.
• Fake marketplaces and offers. A stranger offers to buy your domain for a large amount through a site you have never heard of. The "sale" requires you to approve a transaction that actually hands over the domain or drains the wallet.

Never share your recovery phrase with anyone, including someone claiming to be support. No legitimate domain service needs it.

Worked examples

These are illustrative scenarios, not real accounts.

Example: a channel taking tips

A small art channel wants readers to tip in TON. The owner buys a short, readable name through the auction, keeps the NFT in a self-custodial wallet, and links the wallet record to the same wallet. They test with a friend, then add the name to the channel description and a pinned post. A year later, the calendar reminder they set prompts them to renew, which costs only a network fee.

Example: separating holding and receiving

A freelancer wants the domain to be hard to steal. They keep the domain NFT in a wallet they rarely use, stored with an offline backup, and point the wallet record at their everyday wallet. If the everyday wallet's phone is lost, they create a new wallet and update the record from the holding wallet. The name customers know never changes.

Example: a second-hand purchase gone wrong, and fixed

Someone buys a short name on a marketplace and immediately posts it in their channel. The first tip goes to the seller, because the wallet record still holds the seller's address. They open the domain's page, see the old record, set it to their own wallet and test it. Then they ask the seller, politely, to return the misdirected tip. Recovering it depends entirely on the seller's goodwill, which is why the order of steps matters.

Common mistakes

• Assuming owning means linked. Holding the NFT does not set the wallet record. Check the record after every purchase or move.
• Publishing before testing. Always send a small test payment to the name first.
• Keeping the domain in a custodial wallet that cannot sign the transactions needed to edit records or renew.
• Forgetting the yearly renewal. There is no grace period, and an expired name goes back to auction.
• Pointing the name at an exchange deposit address that needs a memo.
• Trusting a name because it looks official. Anyone can register a lookalike.
• Renewing through a link in a message rather than through the official site or your own wallet.
• Selling a domain without clearing the wallet record, or without removing it from your channel and profiles.
• Losing the recovery phrase, which loses the domain with it.

FAQ

Do I need a .ton domain to use TON on Telegram?

No. Wallets work perfectly well with ordinary addresses. A domain is a convenience for receiving funds by name or for publishing TON Sites and stored files.

Can I change which wallet my domain points to?

Yes. The wallet holding the domain can edit the wallet record at any time with a small transaction. The new address applies to payments sent after the change.

What happens to payments if my domain expires?

Nothing already sent is affected. But once the domain is released and someone else wins it, they can point it anywhere, so future payments to the name would reach them. Remove the name from your channel if you decide not to renew.

Can someone take my domain if they know the name?

Not while you renew it and keep control of your wallet. Control comes from holding the NFT, and only a transaction signed by your wallet can move it or change its records.

Is a .ton domain the same as a Telegram username?

No. A .ton domain comes from the TON DNS auction. Collectible Telegram usernames come from Fragment and are shown there with their own address ending in .t.me. They are separate names with separate rules.

Is buying domains a good investment?

This guide does not give investment advice. Domains can lose their resale value, renewals add an ongoing cost, and many names never find a buyer. Buy one only if you will use it.

Summary

A .ton domain is an NFT that gives a readable name to a wallet, a TON Site or stored files. You buy a new one by auction on the official domain site, keep it in a self-custodial wallet, and link it by writing an address into its wallet record. Test with a small payment before publishing it, renew it at least once a year, and update the records whenever you move, buy or sell the domain. Treat any name you receive as a convenience to verify, not as proof of who is behind it.