Telegram founder Pavel Durov introduced on July 21, 2026, that the messaging app will roll out a local, non-custodial pockets throughout all variations of its app, focusing on greater than 1 billion month-to-month energetic customers with instantaneous, zero-fee crypto transactions.
GRAM, the native token of The Open Community (TON) blockchain, jumped roughly +7% on the information, climbing from round $1.36 to above $1.50, pushing the coin’s market cap to roughly $4.18Bn, in line with CoinGecko information.
Durov needs a Gram pockets in each Telegram app by summer time
Pavel @durov is teeing up what he is calling the biggest non-custodial pockets rollout in historical past, and the plan is to bake a local the-open-network:native pockets straight into each Telegram app earlier than summer time’s out.
That… pic.twitter.com/O01DkbPJfN
— BSCN (@BSCNews) July 21, 2026
The announcement is the biggest distribution play within the historical past of self-custody crypto. For context, MetaMask, probably the most broadly used non-custodial pockets within the area, counts tens of thousands and thousands of customers.
Telegram is proposing to place self-custody rails in entrance of an viewers that dwarfs something crypto has tried earlier than, which might mark an enormous transfer for the area.
What Durov Truly Introduced and What’s Completely different From What Telegram Already Has
(SOURCE: TradingView)
Telegram already operates a crypto pockets product: the @pockets bot, run by a separate firm referred to as The Open Platform, with over 150 million registered customers. The essential distinction is that @pockets runs in custodial mode by default: an organization holds the keys on customers’ behalf, and customers should actively search it out within the app.
The brand new pockets is native to Telegram itself, which means it ships baked into each model of the app slightly than as an elective bot. It’s non-custodial from day one, so customers maintain the keys to their very own funds, the digital equal of carrying money as a substitute of holding cash in a checking account {that a} third social gathering can freeze or block.
Whether or not the brand new pockets replaces @pockets or coexists with it has not been confirmed, and Telegram has not but disclosed which belongings past Gram it’s going to help or how key administration will work at scale for customers who’ve by no means touched crypto earlier than.
For these weighing the mechanics of self-custody extra broadly, an in depth breakdown of how non-custodial wallets deal with safety and key administration illustrates precisely what’s at stake when an app pushes these obligations to the consumer.
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The Make TON Nice Once more Roadmap and The place This Matches
Telegram’s upcoming narrative:
– Ton’s ticker modified to the-open-network:native (beforehand named the telegram fairness ticker)– The one L1 with a billion-user app hooked up– Telegram having extra management into the chain and platform future as greatest validator– Upcoming self…
— bobdbldr (@0xBobdbldr) July 21, 2026
The pockets announcement is the following step in what Durov has referred to as the Make TON Nice Once more (MTONGA) roadmap. In April 2026, Durov mentioned the TON blockchain obtained a 10x pace improve, together with a 6x improve in block fee bringing transactions to sub-second finality, listed as step certainly one of seven within the roadmap. Step two was a 6x discount in charges.
The rebrand from Toncoin again to Gram in June 2026, authorized by 81% of neighborhood voters, was itself a symbolic reset. Gram was the title Telegram initially selected in 2018 when it raised $1.7Bn for what it referred to as the Telegram Open Community, earlier than the SEC sued, arguing the tokens had been unregistered securities.
Telegram settled in 2020, returned $1.2Bn to buyers, paid an $18.5M civil penalty, and walked away. Neighborhood builders stored the chain alive as Toncoin till Durov retook the reins in 2026.
The title “restoration” was a deliberate sign that, this time, the challenge is Telegram’s once more. XRP’s protracted SEC authorized battle presents a notable parallel – one other token whose trajectory was essentially formed by US regulatory motion, as coated intimately right here.
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The Gram Value Image: Catalysts Don’t Repair a Bearish Chart
What went mistaken right here?$TON / $GRAM is loopy weak pic.twitter.com/A858DCHfJQ
— VIKTOR (@thedefivillain) July 20, 2026
Gram’s 7% transfer on the announcement partially offset a punishing 25% slide via most of July, however the broader technical image stays troublesome. The coin’s 200-day exponential transferring common sits effectively above the present value, confirming that the macro development stays bearish, in line with Decrypt’s evaluation of TradingView information.
The extra fast milestone would require an 88% rally from the present $1.52 stage simply to achieve Gram’s Could 2026 peak of $2.89 – the excessive set when Telegram first introduced its takeover of the community. The all-time excessive of $8.25, reached in June 2024 throughout Telegram’s tap-to-earn gaming craze, is a separate dialog solely.
The adoption hole is the actual take a look at. If even 1% of Telegram’s billion-plus customers activate the brand new pockets and transact recurrently, that determine multiplies by orders of magnitude. Distribution and activation usually are not the identical factor, and Durov has given no launch date past “this summer time.”
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