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Telegram @wallet bot now allows users to trade crypto in-app

The bot lets users buy, sell, receive and send cryptocurrencies without leaving the messaging application.

Telegram @wallet bot now allows users to trade crypto in-app
Photo by Dima Solomin / Unsplash

Telegram users can now buy and sell cryptocurrency within the app using the @wallet bot, developed by independent developers in The Open Network (TON) community.

The detail

  • The bot, which can be accessed by typing “@wallet” in the search bar within the Telegram app, has a buy-with-credit-card and a peer-to-peer (P2P) feature.
  • The P2P side of the bot allows users to post ads to sell cryptocurrencies to other users of the messaging application.
  • The bot currently supports only bitcoin and toncoin, the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain. It’s unclear when the bot will support other crypto assets.

Vital quote

“It [the bot] is aimed towards ordinary users and provides a low entry threshold for learning about blockchain. Many services on TON are similar to the usual applications that people are already used to using,” a TON Foundation representative told Blockworks, which was the first to report the story.
  • The @wallet bot was initially launched in April with support limited to sending and receiving toncoin to other Telegram users.
  • However, the wallet’s functionality has now been expanded to allow buying and selling.
  • The @wallet bot isn’t the first automated TON wallet integrated with Telegram. A few others include @Crypto Bot, Tegro Money Bot and Teegra.

Some backstory

  • TON, originally created by Telegram founders to integrate web3 use cases into the messaging app, is an open-source layer one blockchain.
  • Telegram was forced to withdraw its involvement in the blockchain network in 2020 following a legal bout with the United States Securities Exchange Commission.
  • However, the TON Foundation, the non-profit that markets the blockchain network, continues to pursue the original goal of integrating crypto use cases natively with Telegram.
  • Earlier this year, Forbes contributor Oluwaseun Adeyanju reported that the Ton Foundations was speaking with three central African countries to launch localized stablecoins that integrate with the Telegram messaging app.

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