Telegram Moves Toward Built-In Crypto Payments With TON Pay Launch

TheNewsCryptoPubblicato 2026-02-09Pubblicato ultima volta 2026-02-09

Introduzione

TON Foundation has launched TON Pay, a new payments SDK designed to integrate crypto payments into Telegram’s ecosystem. The wallet-agnostic system enables merchants and Mini App developers to accept Toncoin and Tether’s USDt, aiming to reduce friction in wallet management, settlement, and checkout flows. It targets sub-second transaction times with fees under one cent on average, potentially reaching Telegram’s 1.1 billion monthly users. The system aims to mainstream crypto payments within chats by simplifying adoption. Future updates may include subscriptions and gasless transactions. TON Pay enters a competitive landscape alongside platforms like X and Coinbase’s Base, leveraging Telegram’s vast user base and ease of integration. The open, permissionless network operates under Telegram’s platform policies, with plans to expand beyond Mini Apps and support broader Web3 strategies.

TON Foundation has rolled out TON Pay, a new payments SDK designed to incorporate crypto payments into the Telegram ecosystem. TON Pay’s aim is to turn Telegram into a crypto payment system for Toncoin and other cryptocurrencies. TON Pay is a wallet-agnostic payment system for merchants and Mini App developers. It enables developers to accept Toncoin and Tether’s USDt currencies within Telegram’s Mini Apps.

TON Pay aims to cut down on friction involving wallet management, settlement, and checkout flows. Per the TON Foundation, this SDK makes integration with Telegram Mini Apps simple for everyday commerce. The system aims for sub-second transaction times and fees below one cent on average. TON Pay intends to cover more than 1.1 billion monthly active users on Telegram. The widespread user base of Telegram might enable crypto payments to become mainstream inside chats. To be sure, the project seeks to reduce the barrier to adoption by placing checkout functions directly into the messaging app.

Friction points related to the frequent user, complicated checkouts, and gas fees could be reduced. TON Pay is designed to feel native within Telegram and will support optional merchant tools such as analytics and advanced wallets that are currently in development. For now, TON Pay operates within Telegram Mini Apps, with broader expansion planned. Future updates will probably add support for subscriptions and gasless transactions.

TON Pay Enters Competitive Integrated Payments Landscape

TON Pay’s launch comes at a time when several major platforms are seeking to incorporate crypto payments. Elon Musk’s X has announced a plan for its X Money financial services. Coinbase’s Base is a new app combining social elements with payments and trading. Telegram’s ecosystem also has the ability to incorporate TON Pay to compete with other “everything apps.” TON Pay’s main advantage for merchants will be the ease of development for the ecosystem. There are also concerns by some people about the skepticism surrounding TON, given their previous connections with Telegram.

The TON Foundation argues that, by definition, this network is open and permissionless. Merchants who use the TON Pay system must abide by Telegram’s platform policies. The merchant rules will likely change as the SDK develops. TON Pay’s malleable structure could potentially facilitate compatibility between crypto and fiat payments. Renowned analysts have great expectations that integrated checkouts can potentially accelerate on-chain spend. The proposed rollout strategies include web development beyond Telegram Mini Apps. The rollout of TON Pay can be related to Telegram’s strategy for Web3. It is a wallet-agnostic system aiming to simplify various crypto transactions. TON Pay has originated from Telegram’s potential for developing into a digital payments system.

Highlighted Crypto News:

Vitalik Buterin Says ETH-Backed Algorithmic Stablecoins Qualify as ‘True DeFi’

Tags#TelegramCryptoCryptocurrencyTelegramTONToncoin

Domande pertinenti

QWhat is the main purpose of TON Pay's new payments SDK?

AThe main purpose of TON Pay is to incorporate crypto payments into the Telegram ecosystem, turning it into a payment system for Toncoin and other cryptocurrencies, and enabling developers to accept these currencies within Telegram's Mini Apps.

QWhat are some key features and goals of the TON Pay system?

ATON Pay aims to reduce friction in wallet management, settlement, and checkout flows. It targets sub-second transaction times, fees below one cent on average, and plans to serve Telegram's over 1.1 billion monthly active users. It also supports optional merchant tools like analytics and advanced wallets.

QHow does TON Pay fit into the broader competitive landscape of integrated payments?

ATON Pay enters a competitive field where platforms like Elon Musk's X (with X Money) and Coinbase's Base are also incorporating crypto payments. Its main advantage is the ease of development within the Telegram ecosystem, positioning it to compete with other 'everything apps'.

QWhat potential benefits does TON Pay offer for reducing barriers to crypto adoption?

ATON Pay seeks to reduce adoption barriers by integrating checkout functions directly into the Telegram messaging app, simplifying the user experience, and potentially reducing issues like complicated checkouts and gas fees.

QWhat future developments are mentioned for TON Pay beyond its current capabilities?

AFuture updates for TON Pay are planned to include support for subscriptions and gasless transactions, with a broader expansion beyond Telegram Mini Apps into web development, aligning with Telegram's Web3 strategy.

Letture associate

7 Months After the Collapse of Huiwang, Southeast Asia's Escrow Platforms Undergo a Major Reshuffle

Following the collapse of Huione Pay—dubbed the "Alipay of Southeast Asia"—seven months ago, the region's underground financial guarantee platform sector is undergoing a significant reshuffle. This power vacuum has been swiftly filled by emerging platforms such as XinBi, Tiger/Navigator, JinBei (renamed JinBo), Dali/Tiancheng, and FullyLight. These platforms, operating largely via Telegram and offering services like escrow for illicit transactions, have absorbed the vast user base and markets left behind by Huione. While positioning themselves as "trust intermediaries," their primary clientele consists of networks involved in online scams, money laundering, illegal gambling, and even human trafficking. For instance, the Tiger/Navigator platform explicitly provides "escrow" services for kidnapping-for-ransom operations ("强押车交易"). Data underscores the immense scale: Huione alone processed over $103 billion in cryptocurrency payments and facilitated over $31 billion through its escrow market before its downfall, linking it to Cambodia's notorious Prince Group. Since its collapse, competitors have seen explosive growth. For example, the XinBi platform has accumulated over $1.6 billion in total USDT revenue, while platforms like NewPay, OkPay (under Dali), and FullyLight Wallet collectively processed over $4.8 billion in USDT in a single year. This ecosystem thrives in regions like Cambodia and Myanmar, where regulatory gaps allow these platforms to act as critical financial infrastructure for sprawling cybercrime industries, from scam compounds to online casinos. The article concludes that the moniker "Southeast Asian Alipay" is a misnomer, obscuring the platforms' fundamental role in enabling serious criminal enterprises rather than representing legitimate financial innovation.

Odaily星球日报37 min fa

7 Months After the Collapse of Huiwang, Southeast Asia's Escrow Platforms Undergo a Major Reshuffle

Odaily星球日报37 min fa

The Changing Landscape: What Are Crypto VCs Experiencing?

Title: The Shifting Landscape of Crypto Venture Capital The era of dedicated crypto venture capital funds is undergoing a significant transformation. Once essential for navigating the sector's complexity and high risk, these specialized funds are now facing an identity crisis as the market matures. This shift mirrors historical patterns in other specialized investment classes like cleantech and SPACs, where initial information advantages dissipate as technologies become mainstream and integrated into existing industry frameworks. The article argues that crypto is reaching a critical inflection point, transitioning from a "building phase" to an "integration phase." Major players like Stripe, BlackRock, and Visa now engage with crypto not for its novel mechanics but as a foundational financial infrastructure. Their needs—regulatory compliance, banking partnerships, distribution channels—align with traditional fintech, a domain easily understood by large, generalist funds like Sequoia and Founders Fund. This evolution creates a "barbell effect" within the VC landscape. On one end are massive, diversified platforms that can incorporate crypto as one vertical among many. On the other are small, nimble funds focused on niche, experimental projects. The middle ground—medium-sized dedicated crypto funds—is being squeezed out. Their typical fund size makes it impossible to generate sufficient returns solely from early-stage crypto bets, yet they cannot compete with giants for later-stage deals. Consequently, leading crypto-native firms like Paradigm and Framework Ventures are expanding into AI, robotics, and other sectors, driven partly by LP pressure for better returns amid a broader VC DPI crisis. Others, like Dragonfly and a16z, have narrowed their crypto focus predominantly to financial infrastructure like stablecoins, reframing the sector's core narrative. For crypto entrepreneurs, this consolidation presents challenges. While generalist funds offer larger checks and broader resources, crypto projects now compete fiercely with AI for attention and capital within these firms. Furthermore, the long-term, non-commercial foundational work that built the ecosystem—funded by dedicated crypto VCs—is less likely to attract generalist capital focused on direct returns. The conclusion is that "crypto investor" as a standalone category is becoming obsolete, akin to "internet investor." Crypto is becoming a baseline infrastructure layer. The future will see a barbell structure: large-scale growth financing handled by generalist funds, while pioneering, speculative projects are funded by small, specialized vehicles. The dedicated crypto funds of the 2017-2021 boom, which incubated core infrastructure, are giving way to this new, bifurcated reality.

Foresight News54 min fa

The Changing Landscape: What Are Crypto VCs Experiencing?

Foresight News54 min fa

As Consensus Accelerates, What Are Young Investors Betting On?

Title: As Consensus Forms Faster, What Are Young Investors Betting On? In the rapid evolution of tech investment, a new generation of young investors is navigating a landscape where AI, robotics, commercial aerospace, and quantum computing are advancing simultaneously. Traditional investment logic based on financial models is giving way to a need for deep technical understanding and the ability to act before industry consensus forms. An analysis of trends from the "WAIC FUTURE TECH" list of young investment leaders reveals key shifts in focus. The first major trend is the movement of AI from the digital screen into the physical world. Investment is shifting from large language models and chatbots towards embodied AI, robotics, AI hardware, and edge computing. While demonstrations generate excitement, the real challenge lies in achieving scalable, reliable, and cost-effective delivery in complex real-world environments like factories and logistics. Success depends not just on algorithms but on the integration of sensors, actuators, and control systems. Second, the competitive focus for large models is moving beyond raw capability toward building an "intelligence flywheel." The goal is to create self-reinforcing systems where user interaction generates data, improving the model, which in turn enhances the user experience and attracts more engagement. Companies that successfully embed AI into workflows to create these closed-loop systems can build lasting value that isn't easily erased by the next model upgrade. Third, facing a potential bottleneck in high-quality human-generated data, investors are looking at new underlying technologies. Reinforcement learning and self-play, as demonstrated by AlphaGo Zero, offer paths for AI to generate its own experience. Scientific foundation models, which aim to build general AI capabilities for fields like life sciences and materials discovery, represent a non-consensus direction that could unlock new frontiers of knowledge and data. Finally, in deep-tech areas like quantum computing, commercial aerospace, and space-based infrastructure, patient capital is essential. These fields have long, uncertain development and validation cycles involving complex engineering, supply chains, and regulations. Investment here requires a long-term view, focusing on foundational team capabilities and the eventual emergence of market demand, even if commercial returns are distant. Collectively, these trends illustrate how young investors are adapting to a new era. They are learning to make earlier, technically-informed judgments, balance hype with real-world viability, and provide the patient capital needed to build the deep-tech foundations of the future.

marsbit1 h fa

As Consensus Accelerates, What Are Young Investors Betting On?

marsbit1 h fa

Trading

Spot
活动图片