Telegram Founder Teases Marketplace for Address Auctions

Since founder Pavel Durov discussed the feature Monday afternoon, the price of TON – the native token behind The Open Network – increased 15%.

By Cam Thompson

Aug 22, 2022 at 6:07 p.m. UTC

Updated Aug 22, 2022 at 6:38 p.m. UTC

GettyImages-527244170 — Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov (Getty Images)

Cam Thompson

Cam Thompson is a news reporter at CoinDesk.

Follow @camlearnscrypto on Twitter

Messaging platform Telegram could soon offer a marketplace to auction addresses, founder Pavel Durov said Monday in a message in the app.

Durov referenced an earlier auction of wallet domain names on The Open Network, the protocol he developed alongside Telegram. Having left the project behind due to regulatory concerns from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he proposed that the messaging app could have success in re-introducing elements of Web3 by auctioning off “@ usernames, group and channel links.”

The price of TON, the native token behind The Open Network, is up 15% since Durov sent the message.

"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," Durov said on Telegram.

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