Crypto Added to Telegram by TON Stewards, Opening Path to Payments

The TON Foundation has added crypto payments to Telegram, allowing its 550 million users to send and receive toncoin within the messaging app, according to a Tuesday tweet.

While only toncoin (TON) can be sent within the app, users can also buy bitcoin (BTC) through the "@wallet" bot.
The aim is to make sending toncoin "feel like sending a text message," the TON Foundation, the steward of the cryptocurrency project, said Thursday. The bot has been used by 800,000 Telegram accounts already, it said.
"We anticipate that this functionality will extend into consumer to business payments, so that people can easily acquire goods and services by sending toncoin via bots in the Telegram app," the foundation said.
Twitter offers a similar facility, having added bitcoin payments over the Lightning Network for its Tips feature in September, which relies on third-party payments services like Jack Mallers’s Strike app. Last week payments giant Stripe said it will use Ethereum scaler Polygon to enable customers to pay in crypto, with Twitter the first company to try it out.
The TON crypto project was abandoned by Telegram in August 2020 following a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The foundation recently raised $1 billion worth of TON from its users to advance its ecosystem.

DISCLOSURE

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

Jamie Crawley

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

Follow @JamieCrawleyCD on Twitter

Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.