Telegram adds TON balance feature

The latest Telegram update introduces a user-visible TON balance directly in the main app (not in a separate bot). It doesn’t appear to be a full-fledged wallet, but rather a way to pay for certain Telegram features — still, it’s a very intriguing development. Not all the details are clear yet, but here’s what we do know.

Telegram released an update today. While the official announcement highlights "to-do lists" as the top new feature, there’s another update more relevant to the TON community: channel followers can now suggest posts (like “I suggest you publish this post”) and optionally name a price for publishing them.

What’s particularly interesting is that the price can be set not only in Telegram Stars, but also in Toncoin. The official announcement mentions that you can top up your Toncoin balance via the Fragment website. And we'd like to notice that you can also use split.tg for topping up — no KYC required.

When you top up this way, Telegram sends a system notification saying “you’ve received a gift of X TON.” In the iOS app, a new My TON section appears next to the My Stars menu item. In the Android app, this section isn’t visible yet on our device, although the notification still appears.

The new section shows your Toncoin balance and transaction history, but lacks options like “send Toncoin to someone.” It seems this isn’t a general-purpose wallet like @wallet, but a balance intended specifically for paying for Telegram-related features — such as the newly introduced “suggested posts.”

Even though this isn’t a full wallet, it’s still the first direct integration of Toncoin into Telegram without intermediaries like @wallet or Stars. This makes it a bold step. How will Apple, Google, or the SEC — all of whom have previously pushed back against similar integrations — respond? And how will this affect Toncoin’s price? Time will tell. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if you’ve already tried the update and what you think of it.

@thedailyton