Telegram’s 550 million users now have an easy way to utilize a pair of crypto assets.
The Ton Foundation says it’s created a new way for users to send and receive Toncoin (TON) directly from their chat windows.
They can also interact with the Foundation’s wallet bot to buy, trade and send Bitcoin (BTC).
The bot allows users to exchange and transfer coins to other wallets as well as buy crypto assets using bank cards.
TON is the token powering a decentralized layer-1 blockchain that Telegram initially developed but abandoned in 2020 following a legal battle with securities regulators.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the time accused Telegram of violating securities laws through the unregistered sale of Grams, the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain at the time. The lawsuit prompted the company to sever any and all connections to the project.
The TON Foundation, a community of open-source developers, stepped in and is now supporting the development of the TON blockchain following the announcement that Telegram would no longer pursue the project. The token Gram was also rebranded as Toncoin.
At time of writing, Toncoin is changing hands at $1.90 while Bitcoin is trading at $38,089.