Pavel Durov announced the release of a blockchain marketplace in Telegram

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the possible launch of a marketplace based on the TON blockchain to sell usernames, links to channels and groups in the messenger. He noted that he was impressed by the recent auctions of domain names held by the TON team. Wallet.ton sold for $260,000, while casino.ton sold for ~$244,000.

"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. In addition to millions of catchy t.me addresses like @storm or @royal, all four-letter usernames could be made available for sale (@bank, @club, @game, @gift etc).

This would create a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in protected deals – with ownership secured on the blockchain via NFT-like smart-contracts. Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emoji, could later also become part of this marketplace."

Pavel Durov

Recall that in May 2020, he announced the closure of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project due to a legal conflict with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a ban on token distribution.

After the closure of TON, several independent teams continued to work on blockchain based on the project code. Among them are Free TON (renamed Everscale), a Chinese project from TON Community and NewTON.