Telegram's self-custody crypto wallet goes live in America

Telegram has officially rolled out its built-in crypto wallet to users in the United States, according to CNBC.

The new feature lets Americans send, receive, and hold crypto right inside the app; no downloads, no browser plug-ins, and no third-party logins needed. It’s live inside the Telegram interface this week and available to anyone in the U.S.

The product is called TON Wallet, and it’s fully self-custodial, meaning every user manages their own private keys. The tool was built by The Open Platform (TOP), which developed the wallet infrastructure on the TON blockchain.

Users can send crypto to their contacts with the same ease they send a message, and that’s the entire point of this rollout: minimal friction, direct transactions, and no centralized control.

TON Wallet adds staking, swaps, and fiat ramps to Telegram

TOP’s CEO Andrew Rogozov said the company delayed the wallet’s U.S. release because of legal uncertainty, but the climate has changed. “We started considering the U.S. as a more interesting opportunity for us,” Andrew told CNBC. He pointed to a shift in regulations and Telegram’s growing user base in the U.S. as the main reasons they moved forward.

Andrew said there’s already a large crypto audience on the app, and the wallet gives users a way to interact with Telegram’s wider ecosystem. He described it as “the fundamental part of this infrastructure,” with crypto becoming the core way people store assets and use apps inside Telegram.

“Our goal, our mission here, is to remove as much friction as possible,” he said. “And this is basically what crypto is trying to solve, especially at the global scale, by removing all the borders.”

Onboarding is built around a split-key system: one half is connected to the user’s Telegram account, the other to their email. There’s no need to memorize a seed phrase. “No need to download the wallet, no need to remember the seed phrase,” Andrew said. “This is how we simplify the whole thing.”

Functionality includes peer-to-peer transfers, token swaps, staking for yield, and zero-fee crypto purchases. That last feature is handled through a partnership with MoonPay, which also supports fiat ramps via debit cards. The wallet also connects to Telegram’s “Mini Apps,” allowing access to decentralized applications within the app itself.

Telegram officially stepped away from the TON blockchain in 2020 after legal pressure from the SEC killed its token plans. But the company kept integrating TON features, things like tokenized usernames, collectible stickers, and support for Fragment, a TON-based marketplace. So while Telegram no longer controls the network, it hasn’t let go of either.

With this U.S. launch, TON Wallet enters the same space as Coinbase and Cash App. But unlike those platforms, Telegram already has a direct line to its users. And instead of offering regulated financial services directly, it’s keeping clear of legal headaches by working with licensed partners like MoonPay for all fiat in-and-out transactions.

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