Technology and Science21 July, 20262 min read
Pavel Durov Rolls Out Native Non-Custodial Gram Wallet to More Than 1 Billion Telegram Users
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Telegram will roll out native non-custodial Gram wallet to over 1 billion users this summer. Wallet enables instant, zero-fee cryptocurrency transfers across all Telegram apps.
Durov’s wallet rollout
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the company is rolling out a native non-custodial Gram wallet across every Telegram app this summer, aiming at “more than 1 billion users” with “instant, zero-fee crypto transactions.” In his announcement, Durov framed the move as “the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in human history,” and said the wallet would be built to support Telegram’s native crypto, Gram—formerly known as Toncoin. Decrypt reported that Gram jumped roughly 7% on the news, while the token was described as still “88% down from May levels.”
The rollout is positioned as a shift from Telegram’s existing Wallet bot, which Decrypt said runs partly in custodial mode, to a new wallet that would be non-custodial from the start. Decrypt also noted that several specifics were still unannounced, including whether the new wallet replaces or coexists with @wallet and which assets it will support beyond Gram.
Non-custodial and market reaction
Cryptonews.net said Durov described the initiative as “the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in human history” and tied it to instant zero-fee transfers for Telegram’s “more than one billion users.” Cryptonews.net reported that at press time TON/$GRAM traded around $1.53, up roughly 7.3% over the previous 24 hours, after bouncing from support near $1.40. The same outlet said the recovery pushed the daily RSI to around 45, while also warning that TON/$GRAM remains well below its May peak near $2.80.
In a separate account, Crypto Briefing said Durov’s announcement came after the Gram rebrand and quoted him again on Telegram’s channel: “Instant zero-fee crypto transactions for over a billion users are about to become reality.” Crypto Briefing added that Gram surged about 8%, climbing from $1.44 to nearly $1.56 following the announcement, citing CoinGecko data.
Regulatory history and next steps
Multiple reports tied Telegram’s renewed push to its earlier regulatory fight, with Crypto Briefing noting that Telegram backed the TON ecosystem after abandoning its original blockchain project following a 2020 settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Cryptopolitan account said the SEC forced Telegram to return $1.22 billion to Gram investors and pay a fine of $18.5 million in May 2020, after a court case led the messaging platform to abandon the TON project. Cryptopolitan also said developers preserved the blockchain technology under the name “The Open Network,” and that Telegram’s app reintegrated it into its applications.
While Durov did not provide a fixed release date, Cryptopolitan reported that Telegram plans to integrate the free, non-custodial Gram wallet across its apps this summer, potentially reaching more than one billion users. Yellow’s report emphasized that Telegram had not yet provided a precise date or technical documentation, and said Durov described the update as the largest self-custody crypto-wallet deployment in history while promising instant transfers with zero fees.