Pavel Durov announced on July 21 that Telegram plans to add a native non-custodial GRAM wallet to every Telegram app this summer. He said it would bring instant, zero-fee crypto transactions to more than 1 billion users.

The announcement was brief. Telegram has not provided an exact release date, technical documentation, a list of supported assets or details about regional availability.

For marketers and channel owners, the scale is more important than the wallet label. If Telegram makes self-custody a standard part of the app, crypto payments could become available to users without asking them to install a separate wallet. Whether businesses can use that access effectively will depend on features that have not yet been announced.

What Telegram announced

Durov described the planned release as the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet to date. The wallet will be native to GRAM and included in every Telegram app.

Non-custodial means users control the keys to their funds. A provider does not hold those keys on the user's behalf. This gives users more control, but it also makes backup and recovery a central product issue. Telegram has not explained how key creation, storage or account recovery will work.

The new product should not be confused with the existing Crypto Wallet. According to Wallet's official help center, Crypto Wallet is a custodial service that stores users' private keys. Its DeFi Account provides a separate non-custodial address and is operated as a third-party service. Telegram has not said whether the new native wallet will replace, connect to or coexist with either option.

GRAM is the renamed Toncoin, not a new asset

GRAM is the current name of the crypto asset previously called Toncoin. The rename took effect on June 15, 2026. The blockchain is still called TON, and existing addresses, assets and balances did not change.

Users do not need to swap TON for GRAM, move funds to a new address or activate a replacement token. Wallet's official documentation warns that offers asking users to do so are scams.

This distinction matters for advertisers and channel owners. A major wallet launch will attract fake support accounts, misleading ads and fraudulent conversion offers. Crypto campaigns should be checked closely for impersonation, external wallet links and claims that users must migrate their holdings.

The zero-fee promise needs more detail

Durov promised instant, zero-fee crypto transactions, but did not define which transactions will qualify or how their costs will be covered.

The distinction is important. Transfers between users of the current custodial Crypto Wallet can be instant and free because they are recorded internally rather than on the blockchain. Transactions from the non-custodial DeFi Account are recorded on-chain and require network fees.

The planned wallet is non-custodial, so Telegram will need to explain whether fees are removed at the protocol level, subsidized, limited to certain transfers or handled through another mechanism. Until that documentation appears, businesses should not describe every GRAM transfer as permanently free.

What this could change for Telegram marketing

A wallet built into every app could shorten the path between content and payment. A user might discover a product in a channel, interact with a bot or Mini App and pay without setting up a separate wallet.

That is the opportunity, but it is not a working marketing flow yet. Telegram has not announced merchant APIs, checkout tools, attribution features, support for recurring payments or integration with its existing Stars economy.

Distribution is the strongest part of this announcement. Crypto wallets already exist inside Telegram, but a native feature placed in every app could expose self-custody to a much larger audience. For advertisers, the useful metric will not be the number of Telegram accounts that can see a wallet. It will be the number of people who activate it and complete a relevant action after seeing a campaign.

Sara Al Mansoori

AdTech Strategist at MangoAds.

Channel owners should apply the same standard. The wallet may eventually support easier tips, subscriptions, paid access or product sales, but none of those new monetization functions were confirmed in Durov's post.

What businesses should watch before launch

Before changing payment or advertising plans, teams should wait for answers in four areas:

  • Activation and recovery - how users create a wallet, secure keys and regain access.
  • Payments - which transfers are free and whether merchant or bot interfaces are available.
  • Measurement - what events can be tracked from an ad or post through to a completed payment.
  • Compliance - supported countries, identity checks, asset restrictions and rules for crypto promotion.

The wallet could become an important payment layer for Telegram. The current announcement establishes reach and ambition, but not a deployable business model. Marketers and publishers should follow the rollout closely, protect their audiences from GRAM-related scams and wait for technical documentation before building campaigns around zero-fee payments.

This article covers a product announcement and its possible impact on Telegram marketing. It is not investment advice. GRAM is a volatile crypto asset, and the final wallet terms may differ from the initial announcement.

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