Telegram now lets users send cryptocurrency through TON blockchain spinoff

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Telegram now allows users to send Toncoin directly from chats within the messaging app. Telegram now supports Toncoin transactions with no fees attached.

A short video shows how the platform works. Adding Telegram's Wallet bot to your attachment menu will allow you to purchase and transfer cryptocurrencies.

You can now send #Toncoin directly within Telegram chats!



It’s a new way to send Toncoin without transaction fees to any Telegram user. With this service, you’ll no longer need to enter long wallet addresses and wait for confirmations.



Watch the video and test the new feature! pic.twitter.com/EtXSMFtJj6

— TON (@ton_blockchain) April 26, 2022

When you're ready to send the coin, you can pull up the wallet from your attachment menu, enter the amount of Toncoin you want to send, and then hit SEND.

Telegram shut down its own cryptocurrencies operation after facing pressure from the SEC. The Telegram Open Network was developed by the Durov brothers. Telegram was ordered by the SEC to stop selling Gram after it was found that it failed to register its pre-ICO sales.

After Telegram abandoned the TON project, a group of developers renamed it The Open Network and renamed it Gram. Durov expressed his support for the project in December, noting that the technology we created is alive and evolving. The TON Foundation managed to raise $1 billion in donations earlier this month.