Telegram Wallet now allows users to exchange crypto with each other

Developers behind the Telegram Wallet Bot, which allows Telegram users to buy cryptocurrencies with bank cards, exchange and transfer to other wallets, have launched a P2P cryptocurrency exchange.

Launched in April, Wallet Bot allows Telegram users to buy toncoin (TON) and send it in chat messages. The latest update will allow the sale of cryptocurrencies between users through the Telegram app, with the exchange services acting as guarantors for each transaction. In any case of disagreement between seller and buyer, the service will carry out a dispute resolution process.

The service is presented as offering “anonymous P2P deals”, but users must share their mobile number with the bot to deposit, exchange or buy crypto.

Users looking to sell cryptocurrencies will pay a 0.9% commission while buyers don’t have to pay fees, according to a statement from developers from The Open Network (TON) Foundation, a non-commercial group of supporters and contributors to the TON blockchain that was originally founded by the Durov brothers, the founders of Telegram Messenger.

To sell tokens, users will post messages in the app that buyers can then choose from. Buyers can use USD, EUR, UAH, BYN and KZT to buy cryptocurrencies.

Toncoin (TON) and bitcoin (BTC) are currently available for purchase, with plans to increase supply at a later date, according to the company. Only TON can be sent between users directly through chats.

“It is aimed at regular users and provides a low entry threshold for learning about blockchain. Many services on TON are similar to the common applications that people are already used to using, a spokesperson from the wallet team told Blockworks.

“Without leaving Telegram, you can buy cryptocurrency, send it to your friends with a short nickname without long wallet addresses, access the Internet with the @mobile bot, pay for a subscription to your favorite Telegram channel along with many other services,” so they.

Telegram previously intended to launch an official token, GRAM, but was prevented from doing so by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020, forced to return $1.2 billion raised for the project to investors and pay a fine of 18.5 million dollars.

The TON Foundation “is a decentralized community started by Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko after Telegram walked away from the project,” according to its website.

“One of the goals is to merge blockchain technology with the traditional internet,” the spokesperson said. “To promote this decentralized concept, TON is creating its own ecosystem, which already includes DNS, websites and proxies.”

The total number of custodial accounts has grown to 1.3 million according to a statistics page provided by the group, but the Ton Scan block explorer did not show any information at press time.

The TON community Telegram group has 630,000 subscribers.

The TON token is trading at $1.39 as of 9:00 a.m. ET, with a market cap of around $1.7 billion and a circulating supply of 1.22 billion TON, according to CoinMarketCap.

Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.

This story was updated on October 4 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

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