The Open Network Foundation (TON Foundation) has appointed Nikola Plecas, formerly a senior executive at Visa, as its Vice President of Payments to lead its payment infrastructure strategy. Plecas will be in charge of expanding TON's payment capabilities, managing financial partnerships, and ensuring compliance as the network aims to scale services for over one billion Telegram users.
Bringing deep expertise from Visa, where Plecas developed crypto-related initiatives and streamlined on-ramp performance, the hire signals TON's ambition to build a globally interoperable and robust payments architecture. This includes enhancing scalability, security, and interoperability to support growing demand from developers, enterprises, and end-users within the Telegram ecosystem.
TON has also been active in integrating stablecoins like Ethena's USDe and tsUSDe and collaborating with Tether's USDt ecosystem via LayerZero to support dollar-denominated savings and expand cross-chain connectivity to more than 100 chains including Ethereum, Tron, and Solana.
TON Foundation CEO Max Crown emphasized that payments are a core pillar of TON’s roadmap and highlighted Plecas's experience and leadership as key to accelerating TON’s global growth. The appointment strengthens TON's position in the competitive Layer 1 blockchain sector and advances its goal of mass adoption through seamless, in-app payment solutions for Telegram's vast user base.
Industry observers view the move positively, noting Plecas’s combination of traditional financial expertise and crypto innovation as valuable for navigating regulatory challenges and fostering mainstream blockchain adoption.