Starting February 21, Telegram will support mini-apps only on the TON blockchain

What’s new? As part of the partnership between Telegram messenger and the non-profit organization TON Foundation, third-party Telegram crypto wallets must now use TON Connect as the exclusive connection protocol. Thus, under the terms of the partnership, TON becomes the only supported blockchain for services within the messenger.

Material by Cointelegraph

What else is known? TON Connect is an open-source toolkit that serves as a communication protocol between wallets and applications in the TON ecosystem. It allows users to log into apps and services using TON wallets instead of logins and passwords.

According to Telegram’s updated terms of service, the messenger will only support crypto wallets connected via TON Connect.

“Tokens and NFTs on other blockchains like Ethereum and BNB are not permitted,” the terms of service reads.

An NPO spokesperson explained to Cointelegraph that mini-apps within Telegram that run on other blockchains must migrate to TON by February 21. This includes migrating existing assets, migrating smart contracts, and exclusive use of TON Connect. Applications that fail to meet the conditions by that date will cease to be supported.

The changes will not affect Telegram’s own wallet called Wallet, as it is originally based on TON and only supports TON Connect to interact with other decentralized applications.

Some third-party wallets in Telegram integrated TON Connect before Telegram announced its exclusive partnership with TON. For example, Bitget Wallet Live, a multichain Bitget exchange wallet launched in October 2024, integrated TON Connect on January 16 to “enhance user and developer experiences”

The decision sparked outrage in the crypto community, with many questioning Telegram’s commitment to decentralization and even TON’s ability to remain stable in the face of an influx of network activity.

Some Telegram mini-apps, such as Grindery Wallet, have considered leaving the Telegram ecosystem following the changes.

“Telegram is following in the footsteps of Big Tech by creating monopolies. The fact that they gave their partners — the developers building on Telegram — only a few days to adjust makes it rather challenging. This could significantly erode trust in Telegram and what it once stood for,” said Grindery co-founder and CEO Tim Delhaes.

In turn, TON Foundation board member Steve Yun said that the decision is “not a limitation, but a necessity” in the context of security and scalability.

He explained that TON’s technology is in line with the high demand for throughput from Telegram’s 950 million users, and also emphasized the security issues that could potentially arise from the diverse blockchains in Telegram’s Web3 ecosystem.

He also noted that Telegram bots will continue to support multiple blockchains, despite the exclusivity of TON for mini-apps.

“As the Telegram ecosystem becomes more and more mature at offering goods and services to the user base effectively, more and more teams wanting access to this user base will have no choice but to build on TON. More builders, more use cases to TON,” Yun concluded.