Several changes at the TON blockchain level in spring 2026 have started working together in ways that directly affect tsTON liquidity providers.
Faster block production increased staking rewards. Lower network fees made swapping and arbitrage more active. Combined with the design of STON.fi’s tsTON pools, these changes have significantly improved the APR dynamics of tsTON liquidity positions. The mechanics behind this shift are not immediately obvious, so let’s break them down.
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One of the most interesting properties of DeFi is composability — the ability of different protocols and products to build on top of each other. A protocol upgrade does not affect just one product. Changes in network performance influence staking, liquid staking affects liquidity pools, and liquidity pools shape swapping activity. The recent evolution of tsTON pools is a good example of how improvements at one layer of the ecosystem can create benefits across many others.
What changed in TON?
Two recent changes matter here.
1. Faster block production
TON’s block production became significantly faster, dropping from roughly 2.5 seconds to around 0.4 seconds per block.
Validators receive rewards for producing blocks and securing the network. As blocks are produced more frequently, rewards are distributed more frequently as well.
This substantially increased the rewards available through TON staking and, by extension, liquid staking protocols built on top of it. Following the Catchain 2.0 upgrade, Gram’s (prev. Toncoin) base APY increased from roughly 4–6% to around 24%.
That matters because tsTON represents staked TON together with accumulated staking rewards. As staking rewards increase, the value generated inside tsTON grows as well.
2. Lower network fees
The second change is lower transaction costs across the network.
Cheaper transactions are good for ordinary users, but they also have an important effect on market activity.
When swapping becomes cheaper, more opportunities become economically attractive for arbitrage traders.
That tends to increase:
- swapping activity;
- arbitrage volume;
- competition between market participants.
For liquidity providers, more swapping volume generally means more fees generated by the pool.
Why tsTON pools are different
Many liquidity providers think of pool rewards as coming entirely from swap fees.
In tsTON pools, that’s only part of the picture. tsTON continuously accumulates staking rewards. As a result, its value gradually increases relative to GRAM (prev. TON) over time.
The tsTON/GRAM (prev. TON) pool is designed with weighted reserves rather than a traditional 50/50 structure: 75% of the pool’s exposure comes from tsTON and 25% from GRAM (prev. TON).
This means liquidity providers are not only getting fees from swaps. A large portion of their liquidity remains exposed to the staking rewards embedded inside tsTON itself.
Conceptually, the pool’s return can be viewed as:
Pool return ≈ Swapping fee APR + tsTON rewards exposure
Two reward streams in one position
This structure is what makes tsTON pools particularly interesting from an APR perspective.
By providing liquidity in the tsTON/GRAM (prev. TON) pool, users do not simply get swap fees. They also remain exposed to the staking rewards embedded inside tsTON itself.
In practice, one liquidity position combines two potential sources of return:
- staking rewards accumulated by tsTON;
- liquidity provider rewards generated by pool activity.
As staking rewards rise and trading activity increases, both components can contribute to the overall APR profile of the position.
The hidden engine: arbitrage
There is another mechanism working in the background.
Because tsTON continuously appreciates relative to TON, its price relationships across different markets do not remain perfectly synchronized at all times.
For example, tsTON swaps against both GRAM (prev. TON) and USDT.
As tsTON’s value changes, small pricing imbalances naturally emerge between:
- GRAM (prev. TON) ↔ tsTON
- USDT ↔ tsTON
Those imbalances create arbitrage opportunities.
Market participants may execute routes such as:
USDT → tsTON → GRAM (prev. TON)
or
GRAM (prev. TON) → tsTON → USDT
to capture those differences.
As they do, they generate volume for the pools involved.
For liquidity providers, this matters because arbitrage activity contributes to swapping fees. In other words, the same mechanism that allows tsTON to reflect staking rewards can also help generate additional swapping activity around the asset.
Why it matters
- For users. tsTON pools combine two sources of value generation. The first comes from swapping activity and swap fees. The second comes from exposure to a liquid staking asset that continuously accumulates staking rewards. This creates a different profile from a conventional liquidity pool where returns depend solely on swapping volume.
- For liquidity providers. TON protocol improvements can affect pool economics in indirect ways. Higher staking yields improve the value proposition of tsTON itself. Lower transaction costs encourage more swapping and arbitrage activity. Both forces can contribute to the economics of providing liquidity.
- For TON ecosystem. The recent evolution of tsTON pools demonstrates how different layers of TON infrastructure reinforce each other.
- Changes to the network influence staking.
- Staking influences liquid staking.
- Liquid staking influences liquidity pools.
- Liquidity pools influence swapping activity.
Rather than existing as isolated products, these systems increasingly work together as parts of a larger DeFi ecosystem.
In short
Faster block production increased staking rewards. Lower fees increased swapping and arbitrage activity. Because tsTON pools combine liquidity provision with exposure to liquid staking rewards, both developments contribute to APR.
Keep in mind that APRs fluctuate and past performance does not guarantee future results. But understanding the mechanics helps explain why tsTON pools have recently started looking significantly more attractive.
