According to CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday, messaging app Telegram has sold $50 million in usernames in less than a month via its blockchain-based auction platform, Fragment.
The statistic shows how well Telegram did on its second attempt to build its own crypto infrastructure. The fragment is based on the Telegram Open Network, a blockchain that Durov initially abandoned in 2020 due to regulatory pressure before returning as long as its community kept it alive.
Durov is putting Telegram on a track for further crypto build-outs, backed by Fragment’s strong sales. He claimed that the business would provide non-custodial wallets and a decentralized exchange (DEX) that may have millions of users. Many cryptocurrency traders already use Telegram as their preferred chat platform, giving it a captive audience from the start.
The statement represents the first time that Telegram has directly participated in integrating TON blockchain inside the messenger. Earlier, Durov described the blockchain’s growth as a collaborative endeavor that Telegram was content to merely observe. The system, formerly known as Newton and Toncoin, is one of two competing projects that emerged from Telegram’s original TON concept; both were created by the community of supporters, but only one received Telegram’s official endorsement.
Durov compared Telegram’s effort to the “extreme centralization” of the failed, centralized crypto exchange FTX in a statement on his personal channel. He advised –
“Cryptocurrency users should migrate to self-hosted wallets that don’t depend on a single third party and trustless transactions”
A $126 million “rescue fund” was launched earlier on Wednesday by supporters of the TON network to support cryptocurrency ventures affected by the collapse of FTX. As of the time of publication, the TON currency was up roughly 4%.
