Wallet, which is built on The Open Network (TON) blockchain, already allows crypto transfers between users in chats. Now it’s letting merchants integrate cryptocurrency into the bots they use to accept payments, said the Wallet team. With WalletPay, merchants can now seamlessly accept cryptocurrency payments within the Telegram app, with features available such as the ability to make payments directly within chats.
Wallet, a service provider, has expanded its chat-centric payments mechanism to allow merchants on messaging app Telegram to accept payment in cryptocurrency. The system supports tether (USDT), bitcoin (BTC) and toncoin (TON).
The provision for crypto services within Telegram began over a year ago, but has not been widely adopted. Just 2 million of the more than 700 million Telegram members use Wallet services, the payment provider said.
The development of the TON blockchain project by Telegram was abandoned in 2020 due to legal battles with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, The TON Foundation, a group of TON community members, have kept the project alive and continue to advance it.