Telegram is committed to providing TON with the necessary tools and infrastructure to cater to its 80 million global customers.
The Open Network (TON) has begun the official rollout of its self-custodial Wallet on Telegram, choosing Africa as the frontier for the new project.
In an announcement on X, formerly Twitter, Andrew Rogozov, the founder and CEO of The Open Platform, the brains behind the development of the blockchain, said the Wallet will first be made available to selected countries in Africa before expanding to other regions around the world.
Global Expansion in Q2 2024
Although the TON network did not disclose the African nations that could access the Web3 wallet, the platform plans to extend the offerings to other countries in the Middle East, Europe, and the Asia Pacific in the first quarter of 2024. Additionally, Rogozov said the Wallet will eventually become available for other countries worldwide during the second quarter of the same year.
"I'm happy to announce that the global rollout of Wallet in Telegram starts today.
It's a very exciting moment, and our team worked very hard.
We're starting with selected countries in Africa, expanding to MENA, EE, and Asia in Q1 2024, and to the entire world by Q2 2024."
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) November 10, 2023
The protocol, backed by the popular social messaging app Telegram as its official partner, initially unveiled the Web3 Wallet earlier this year following the integration of its other crypto custodial wallet on Telegram in September.
“Today, with a clear vision, a strong team, established partnerships, and secured resources, we are ready to bring Wallet and the entire TON ecosystem to the world. We anticipate that Wallet will propel global crypto adoption to an unprecedented level,” Rogozov said.
It is important to note that the new Wallet is separate from the one already available on Telegram as a standalone bot with millions of users from across the world through their settings.
Toncoin (TON) Surges to All-time-high
Despite being selected as the official blockchain for Telegram, the TON network operates as an autonomous protocol.
Telegram’s Chief Investment Officer, John Hyman, emphasized in a statement that Telegram remains focused on delivering an exceptional messaging platform and has no intentions of venturing into the crypto space. Nevertheless, the company is committed to providing TON with the necessary tools and infrastructure to cater to its 80 million global customers.
Recently, TON’s native crypto, Toncoin (TON), achieved its highest levels since the previous year, fueled by the recent introduction of giveaways on Telegram. Currently, TON stands as the 10th-largest crypto, boasting a market capitalization exceeding $9 billion.
On Wednesday, the token traded at $2.71, its highest level in 11 months after Telegram introduced a new feature called Giveaways, allowing channel owners to randomly distribute prizes among their followers.
Shortly after, Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, used $200,000 worth of TON tokens to cover Telegram Premium subscriptions for 10,000 users on the platform.
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