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 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.
