Telegram Gram Wallet: 714,844 registrations in two days, Durov says

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, said in a post on X published on Monday, November 9, 2026, that more than 700,000 new self-custodial crypto wallets were created on the platform in 48 hours. He attributed the growth to the automatic activation feature of Gram Wallet, which activates a wallet when a user receives Gram, without the user having to create one beforehand.

The post included a dashboard showing 714,844 registrations in the two-day period. Durov wrote: “Adoption spreads virally: a wallet activates the moment someone receives Grams.” He also declared that “the crypto revolution is going strong.”

Gram Wallet: 714,844 registrations in two days

Durov’s figures refer to wallets created through the native launch of Gram Wallet, which is built into the Telegram app and operates on The Open Network, the TON blockchain. They do not include the activity of the separate wallet bot, which has more than 150 million users, according to the same source.

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How the automatic activation works for users

• Receive: a user can receive Gram through Telegram before creating a wallet.
• Hold and transfer: the wallet holds and transfers the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain.
• Purchases: the wallet supports purchases of Telegram gifts and collectible usernames.
• Control: the wallet is non-custodial, so funds do not have to be left with an exchange or another intermediary.

The design gives users direct control of their digital assets, which separates the service from custodial products that hold funds on behalf of customers. Telegram first announced the wallet integration in July 2026, when Durov described plans to bring instant, fee-free cryptocurrency transfers to a platform with more than one billion monthly users. Under the new model, the wallet becomes accessible inside the app once Gram arrives, and Durov credits that step for the recent rise in registrations.

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Timeline: from the May announcement to the wallet rollout

• May 2026: Durov announces that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the main driving force of the blockchain and become its largest validator.
• July 21, 2026: Durov announces the Gram Wallet plan inside Telegram.
• Late August 2026: limited access to the wallet begins.
• October 2026: Telegram expands the Money wallet, its native non-custodial wallet, to more users.

Created wallets are not the same as active wallets

The Gram blockchain explorer separates wallets that were created from wallets that are active. A wallet counts as active only after it completes at least one transaction on-chain, and the explorer’s count of created wallets includes addresses that never made a transaction. Durov’s numbers measure registrations of created wallets, not active wallets, so they say nothing yet about how much the network is used.

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Ismail Rustamov’s analysis: 282,000 active wallets in 24 hours

In an analysis published on November 6, 2026, market researcher Ismail Rustamov questioned whether the rise in registrations translates into real use of the network. He estimated the TON network processed about 5 million daily transactions, and his figures for activity and market conditions are listed below.

• Active wallets in 24 hours on TON: 282,000.
• Estimated monthly active wallets: 2.2 million, about 0.2% of Telegram’s more than one billion monthly users.
• Total value locked in DeFi on TON: US$42.9 million, down from US$92 million in May.
• GRAM price: about US$1.10 on November 6, 2026, 87% below the June 2024 peak of US$8.24.
• Scheduled release: 1.08 billion GRAM tokens in February 2027.

Rustamov said decentralized finance activity remained limited despite improvements in transaction volumes. He also noted that GRAM briefly reached US$2.72 after Telegram’s May takeover announcement before losing those gains, and that the October wallet expansion produced a temporary 9% rally to US$1.56.

TON centralization concerns and what is still unknown

Telegram’s larger role in TON has raised concerns about centralization and about the concentration of influence in a blockchain tied to a single messaging platform. Durov said at the time that transaction fees had fallen sixfold to nearly zero, while Telegram outlined plans to improve the network’s infrastructure.

Several points remain unconfirmed. There is no independent verification of on-chain activity or of how many of these wallets are retained. It is not known how many of the new wallets made transactions or hold balances, and the company has not published an official number of active Gram Wallet users. The figures from November 9 are statements by Durov, and no official data beyond the X post has been released. No official next steps for the launch have been announced.

Rustamov’s analysis also points to the release of 1.08 billion GRAM tokens scheduled for February 2027, which he warned could weigh on the market.