Telegram messenger, known for its crypto-friendly environment, is embracing the evolving cryptocurrency payment industry with the introduction of a new payment option. Wallet Pay, a Telegram bot designed for buying and selling cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC, has recently launched a crypto payment solution based on The Open Network (TON) blockchain.
The newly unveiled Wallet Pay service facilitates seamless crypto payment transactions between Telegram users and retail businesses, allowing for direct payments within the Telegram interface.
In an announcement made on July 13, Wallet revealed that the new payment feature is immediately available in all jurisdictions supported by the wallet service.
However, the Wallet Pay service is currently not available in the United States and in countries blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force. A Wallet spokesperson clarified that the excluded countries, including Iran, Myanmar, and North Korea, are determined based on their respective jurisdictions and compliance regulations.
To comply with local regulations, Wallet puts the responsibility on local businesses to determine if cryptocurrency payments are permitted within their jurisdictions before applying to use Wallet Pay.
Wallet Pay Service Enables Direct Cryptocurrency Payments within Telegram
The list of jurisdictions that do not allow residents to make crypto payments includes countries like Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, and others. Notably, Russia, which banned domestic crypto payments in 2020, ranks as the second-largest country in terms of Telegram downloads after India, according to Statista data. Indonesia, Egypt, and Vietnam are also among the top 10 countries with the highest Telegram app downloads.
Wallet Pay’s representative stated that they are currently unaware of which merchants will be the first to test out the payment feature, as the Know Your Business (KYB) procedure has not been initiated yet. The spokesperson explained that although the support team has collected several hundred requests, the KYB procedure has not commenced, making it impossible to determine the initial adopters of the feature.
It is important to note that Wallet operates independently from Telegram, utilizing the Telegram Web Apps open protocol to develop its bot and application, providing users with a dedicated Telegram bot and the official Wallet Pay website for accessing the payment service.
Wallet’s new payment feature supports three cryptocurrencies currently featured on its platform: Bitcoin, Tether USDT, and Toncoin (TON). Unlike self-custodial or noncustodial wallets like MetaMask, the Telegram Wallet bot functions as a custodial wallet with its own fee structure.
During the beta period, fees for crypto payments through Wallet Pay will range from 1% to 3%. Additionally, according to Wallet Support data, withdrawing cryptocurrencies from the custodial wallet incurs a commission of 0.0004 BTC ($12), while USDT and TON withdrawals carry fees of 2 USDT and 0.05 TON, respectively.
