Telegram Begins Rolling Out a Crypto Wallet Across Its 1B+ User Base
Telegram has begun rolling out its native, non-custodial Gram Wallet, with plans to make it available across an app used by more than one billion people each month. Its unusual shared-contract architecture could bring self-custody to a mainstream audience without requiring a separate crypto app.
First announced in July 2026, Telegram’s Gram Wallet has launched to its first group of users. Telegram plans to gradually roll out the non-custodial wallet more broadly across its enormous user base.
Pavel Durov, Telegram Founder and CEO said:
“Gram Wallet in Telegram is ready and is now accessible to a select group of users… We'll be gradually rolling it out to our billion+ users over the next couple of weeks.”
Telegram announced that it passed one billion monthly active users in 2025 and remains one of the world's five most-downloaded apps. It is important to note the billion-user figure is monthly active users (MAU), not registered accounts and not daily active users (DAU).
While several crypto wallets and bots have already been available through Telegram, Gram Wallet is being integrated as a native, non-custodial wallet. This means users retain control of the cryptographic keys governing their assets rather than Telegram holding their funds on their behalf.
The rollout continues Telegram’s long history with crypto. Telegram originally developed the TON network and Gram token before abandoning the project following its legal dispute with the SEC in 2020. TON subsequently continued as a community-led project. Prior to Gram Wallet, Telegram users could opt into crypto functionality through Wallet in Telegram, including a self-custodial TON account. Gram Wallet is different in that it is being integrated as a native feature of the Telegram app itself, with Durov saying it will eventually be available in “every Telegram app.”
The smart contract powering Gram Wallet, called WalletTg, is open source and available through TON’s GitHub repository. Its architecture is designed to avoid individual wallet migrations. According to the WalletTg documentation, each wallet contains an immutable “trampoline” contract with the instruction “JMP to config[-123].” JMP, or “jump,” directs the TON Virtual Machine to Config -123, where the shared WalletTg code is stored on the TON blockchain.
Durov explained:
“Thanks to the validators who approved the smart contract that powers it, future upgrades of the wallet won't require painful migrations.”
Instead of every Telegram wallet storing its own software, the system points each one to shared wallet logic stored on TON in Config -123. When TON validators approve an update, the shared code changes and automatically applies to every wallet, without users needing to manually update or migrate them. Individual users cannot opt out of these upgrades.
Since Gram Wallet is non-custodial, users retain control of the cryptographic keys governing their assets.
Telegram’s existing crypto integrations have already reached a substantial audience. By March 2025, more than 100 million users had signed up for Wallet in Telegram, according to The Open Platform, the wallet’s developer.
Durov stated:
“This summer will see the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in human history.”
What makes the Gram Wallet rollout unusual is that accessing a self-custodial wallet no longer necessarily begins with downloading a separate crypto application. Instead, the wallet is being placed inside an application already used by more than one billion people each month.
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