All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders.
- Telegram adds USDT to the list of tokens supported by its wallet.
- It is expected that Twitter and Meta follow this move.
According to reports, Telegram has successfully added tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin by market cap to its @wallet bot to expand its crypto capabilities, a process that is said to be as easy as sending text or photograph on Telegram.
The implementation was not done overnight. The effort to launch Telegram Open Network (TON) goes way back. Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov announced that the project would be abandoned due to its legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram. We are announcing the discontinuation of our blockchain project. Below is a summary of what it was and why we had to abandon it.
Durov also announced a third-party effort to launch an independent version of the TON blockchain with no involvement of a Telegram employee.
While networks based on the technology we built for TON may appear, we won’t have any affiliation with them and are unlikely to ever support them in any way. So be careful, and don’t let anyone mislead you.
Regardless, Telegram showed a huge interest in the project by building a blockchain-based auction platform, Fragment on top of it. TON was also kept alive by its community who refer to themselves as The TON Foundation.
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.
USDT accessible to over 550 million Telegram users
Last year, the TON Foundation announced that it has added crypto payment to Telegram to enable over 550 million users to send and receive toncoin. The announcement mentioned that only toncoin (TON) could be sent within the app. However, users could buy Bitcoin (BTC) through the “@wallet” bot. This means the addition of USDT increases the users’ option to send and receive crypto.
It is worth noting that Telegram’s wallet bot is a feature that enables users to manage their crypto holdings. Using the bot, users can send and receive transactions, view transaction history, and check balances. According to reports, the integration of USDT could increase its adoption and expose it to a wider audience.
To use this feature, simply use the search at the top right of the home screen, then enter “Wallet”. From here, users can select the verified option and proceed. With Telegram taking crypto integration to a different level, crypto enthusiasts are also expecting the likes of Twitter and Meta to follow suit. Recently, the Financial Times reported that Twitter has instructed a small team to come up with an architecture to bring payment to the platform. For the start, it would be fiat focused but would be flexible enough to accommodate crypto functionality.
According to a report, Twitter registered with the US Treasury as a payment processor in November 2022 and later applied for state regulatory licenses across the US to be able to perform the task.
