Telegram‘s Wallet bot is enabling merchants to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) through the messaging app.
Wallet, a Telegram bot built on The Open Network (TON) blockchain that allows users to transfer cryptocurrencies within chats, has launched a crypto payment solution.
In a Thursday tweet, TON said the new payment functionality is immediately accessible in all regions supported by the wallet service
“Cryptocurrency payments on Telegram just got easier with Wallet Pay: a payment service developed by the wallet team specifically for the Telegram ecosystem,” the team said in the tweet.
“With its help, merchants will be able to instantly accept payments in cryptocurrency, and users will be able to pay for goods and services.”
In the past, merchants had to resort to “do-it-yourself” solutions with basic bots that were linked to cryptocurrency payment systems.
However, courtesy of the new feature, called Wallet Pay, merchants can now seamlessly accept cryptocurrency payments within the Telegram app.
This means that users can make payments directly within their chats with merchants.
The Wallet chatbot, also known as @wallet on Telegram, is an independent bot built on the TON blockchain and Telegram.
It allows users to store, trade, and transfer three cryptocurrencies, including Toncoin (TON), Tether’s USDT on Tron, and Bitcoin.
How to Receive Payments Via Telegram’s Wallet Bot
To receive crypto payments on Telegram, merchants must first apply on the Wallet Pay website.
According to the Wallet chatbot team, there are already approximately 200 companies in the queue to implement the product, with thousands of small businesses expected to apply in the future.
Users can create a new crypto wallet instantly linked to their Telegram account, without the need to save seed phrases or private keys.
Telegram’s venture into cryptocurrency began years ago with the development of the TON blockchain project.
However, due to legal battles with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the project was abandoned in 2020.
The TON community, known as The TON Foundation, has since taken over the project and continued its development.
Despite the availability of cryptocurrency services on Telegram for over a year, only a fraction of the platform’s massive user base has adopted Wallet services.
Out of over 700 million Telegram members, only 2 million use Wallet.
It is worth noting that Telegram is not the only social media platform that has integrated crypto payments over the past few years.
Last year, Twitter teamed up with Stripe, an online payments company, to allow merchants to pay their customers in cryptocurrencies.
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