The bot of the messaging pioneer Telegram by the name of Wallet has introduced a crypto payment solution which enables users and merchants to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The fresh Wallet pay service allows direct crypto transactions between retail businesses and consumers within the Telegram interface. Currently, the new payment feature supports three cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and Toncoin (TON).

Built on The Open Network blockchain, the interface is not very aware of the merchants which would the firs to pilot-test the new feature as Telegram has not launched the Know Your Business (KYB) protocol as of yet. A spokesperson for Wallet Pay had this to state:

“We have had a few hundred requests collected by our support team, but we did not start the KYB procedure with these requests prior to launch, so we don’t yet know who will be the first to implement the feature.”

The list of supported jurisdictions which can access this new feature includes most nations with the exception of several, including the United States, Russia, Iran, Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia. Data from Statista shows that the messaging platform is highly popular in Russia, which represents the second country in the world’s ranks with regards to Telegram application downloads.

While India ranks first, followed by Russia, the remaining countries on the list are Indonesia, the United States, Brazil, Egypt, Vietnam, Mexico, Ukraine and Turkey.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/telegram-wallet-bot-enables-in-app-payments-in-bitcoin-usdt-and-ton

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/07/13/telegram-merchants-gain-to-access-crypto-payments-for-first-time/

https://cryptosaurus.tech/telegrams-wallet-introduces-in-app-crypto-payment-option-opens-up-new-opportunities-for-merchants/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1336855/telegram-downloads-by-country/