Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on July 21, 2026, that the messaging platform will deploy a native, non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet across all versions of its application, potentially reaching more than 1 billion monthly active users with instant, zero-fee crypto transactions. Telegram's user base places it among the world's largest social platforms, rivaling the scale of Instagram and TikTok.

GRAM, the native token of The Open Network (TON) blockchain, rose approximately 7% following the announcement, climbing from around $1.36 to above $1.50 and bringing the token's market capitalization to approximately $4.18 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

Durov described the initiative as the largest non-custodial wallet rollout in history, with plans to integrate a native TON wallet directly into every Telegram application before the end of summer 2026.

Pavel @durov is teeing up what he's calling the largest non-custodial wallet rollout in history, and the plan is to bake a native the-open-network:native wallet straight into every Telegram app before summer's out. That… pic.twitter.com/O01DkbPJfN

— BSCN (@BSCNews) July 21, 2026

The proposed distribution would surpass anything previously attempted in self-custody cryptocurrency. For context, MetaMask, currently the most widely used non-custodial wallet, counts tens of millions of users. Telegram's plan would place self-custody infrastructure in front of an audience significantly larger than any existing crypto user base.

What Durov Announced and How It Differs From Telegram's Existing Wallet

Telegram already operates a cryptocurrency wallet product: the @wallet bot, run by a separate company called The Open Platform, which has over 150 million registered users. That service operates in custodial mode by default, meaning a company holds users' private keys on their behalf, and users must actively seek out the bot within the app.

The newly announced wallet will be native to Telegram itself, integrated directly into every version of the application rather than functioning as an optional bot. It will be non-custodial from launch, enabling users to hold their own private keys — analogous to carrying cash rather than keeping funds in a bank account that a third party could freeze or restrict. Non-custodial architecture may also carry different regulatory implications than custodial services, since platforms do not control user funds directly — a distinction that has shaped how regulators in major jurisdictions have approached wallet providers.

Whether the new wallet will replace or coexist with the existing @wallet bot has not been confirmed. Telegram has not disclosed which additional assets beyond GRAM the wallet will support, nor how key management will function at scale for users with no prior cryptocurrency experience.

The Make TON Great Again Roadmap

The wallet announcement represents the next phase of what Durov has termed the "Make TON Great Again" (MTONGA) roadmap. Community members have outlined the emerging direction:

Telegram's upcoming narrative:

– Ton's ticker changed to the-open-network:native (previously named the telegram equity ticker)
– The only L1 with a billion-user app attached
– Telegram having more control into the chain and platform destiny as biggest validator
– Upcoming self…

— bobdbldr (@0xBobdbldr) July 21, 2026

In April 2026, Durov announced that the TON blockchain had received a 10x speed upgrade, including a 6x increase in block rate bringing transactions to sub-second finality, listed as step one of seven in the roadmap. Step two involved a 6x reduction in transaction fees. The remaining five steps have not yet been disclosed.

The rebrand from Toncoin back to GRAM in June 2026, approved by 81% of community voters, served as a symbolic reset. "Gram" was the name Telegram originally chose in 2018 when it raised $1.7 billion for what it called the Telegram Open Network. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently sued, alleging the tokens were unregistered securities.

Telegram settled with the SEC in 2020, returning $1.2 billion to investors and paying an $18.5 million civil penalty before withdrawing from the project. Community developers maintained the chain as Toncoin until Durov retook control in 2026. The name restoration was a deliberate signal that the project was once again under Telegram's direction. XRP's protracted legal battle with the SEC offers a notable parallel — another token whose trajectory was fundamentally shaped by U.S. regulatory action.

GRAM Price: Partial Recovery Within a Bearish Trend

GRAM's 7% gain on the wallet announcement partially offset a roughly 25% decline sustained through most of July 2026, though the broader technical picture remains challenging.

What went wrong here? $TON / $GRAM is crazy weak pic.twitter.com/A858DCHfJQ

— VIKTOR (@thedefivillain) July 20, 2026

The token's 200-day exponential moving average sits well above the current price, confirming that the macro trend remains bearish, according to Decrypt's analysis of TradingView data.

Reaching GRAM's May 2026 peak of $2.89 — the high set when Telegram first announced its takeover of the network — would require an 88% rally from the current price level of approximately $1.52. The token's all-time high of $8.25, reached in June 2024 during Telegram's tap-to-earn gaming surge, remains substantially above current levels.

The adoption gap remains the central question. If even 1% of Telegram's billion-plus users were to activate the new wallet and transact regularly, the resulting figures would multiply by orders of magnitude. Distribution and activation, however, are distinct metrics, and Durov has provided no specific launch date beyond "this summer."