According to a press release shared with Bitcoinist, developers at Telegram launched a new crypto feature supported by the TON blockchain. Starting today, users from the platform can purchase a premium subscription with TON.

The new feature is part of Telegram’s crypto capabilities expansion. Over the past six months, the platform has launched several features to allow its users to access digital assets.

According to the release, users can activate their Telegram premium subscription with Toncoin using the fragment.com website. The payment provider and digital marketplace has been a key partner for the company as it increases its crypto capabilities.

Built on top of the TON blockchain and launched in 2022, Fragment offers people access to tokenized Telegram handles, TON-based gifts, and more. Andrew Rogozov, a founder at the TON Foundation, said:

We’re delighted the Fragment team continues to deepen the integration with Telegram messenger and extend its functionality. Our goal is to create a user-friendly experience to bring blockchain technology to the masses, and we recognise that developments of this kind which serve Telegram’s extensive user base will help to accelerate the mass adoption of blockchain technology.

Last year, Telegram allowed users access to usernames auction on the TON Network. These usernames are unique and enable people to access an account without providing a phone number. Users can participate in the auctions by acquiring TON.

In addition to improving privacy, Telegram claims that the feature protects them against bad actors and against giving out control of their data to a centralized entity. The auctions were a success, according to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who said at the time:

I’m really impressed by the success of the auction TON recently conducted for their domain/wallet names. Wallet.ton was sold for 215,250 Toncoin (~$260000) while casino.ton was sold for ~$244000. If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction.

A week ago, Telegram enabled users to send and receive transactions with the largest stablecoin in the market, USDT, via their wallet bot. The feature was available with TON and will likely continue expanding in the coming months.

Cover image from Yahoo Finance, chart from Tradingview

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