First announced at Token 2049 crypto conference last week, TON Foundation, the organization behind the TON blockchain (formerly developed by Telegram), said it is integrating the Web3 TON Space wallet for 800 million users.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, on Sept 14, also confirmed the above information through a message sent to the Telegram community: “Starting this November, TON Wallet will be included in the settings and attachment menus for all our users outside the US and some other countries”.
After the announcement, Toncoin (TON) has surged sharply in price. It is trading around $2.49, up more than 2.4% in 24 hours and 46.6% over the week.
Users of Telegram Wallet bot can now integrate the TON Space wallet to buy and sell crypto. Then from November, all Telegram users will be able to access the wallet in the Settings section. However, US citizens and some other countries are still unable to access this feature.
In fact, Telegram has been planning to build non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges since late last year. This year, Telegram launched TON Storage – a decentralized file-sharing and data storage solution as well as added USDT to its wallet bot. Also at the Token 2049 conference, with its blockchain integration strategies, Telegram confidently predicted its users will rise from 800 million to 1.5 billion in the next 3 to 5 years.
Telegram started to dip into blockchain technology and developed Telegram Open Network (TON) in 2018. The platform raised $1.7 billion in a Toncoin private sale but it then had to abandon its blockchain project following a stretched-out battle with the US SEC regarding the unlawful selling of unregistered securities via its ICO. In 2022, the project was restarted by community members and renamed The Open Network.