Telegram founder Pavel Durov says Gram Wallet is ready, beginning a phased rollout of a native self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that could eventually reach the messaging platform’s more than one billion users.
Durov announced on August 31 that Gram Wallet had become accessible to a selected group of users and would gradually roll out more broadly over the following weeks.
The launch follows his July announcement promising what he described as the largest deployment of a non-custodial crypto wallet in history. But behind the headline, the practical questions surrounding Gram Wallet are more basic: What exactly is it, who can access it, does it require identity verification, what happened to Telegram’s existing wallet and can users really send crypto without fees?
Those questions matter because Telegram now effectively has two different crypto-wallet experiences.
Gram Wallet Versus Walt: What’s the Difference?
Gram Wallet is Telegram‘s new native non-custodial wallet. Non-custodial means users retain control over their crypto rather than depositing it with a centralized service that controls the assets on their behalf.
Durov has said the wallet does not require an intermediary to hold funds and has promoted it as a way to make self-custody significantly easier for mainstream users. Telegram’s existing Wallet in Telegram product, meanwhile, is being rebranded as Walt.
The distinction is important. Gram Wallet is intended to become Telegram’s default self-custodial wallet and focuses on payments, transfers and purchases within the Telegram ecosystem. Walt remains a broader crypto-financial platform offering services including trading, investing and support for assets across multiple blockchains.
Its custodial Crypto Wallet service can buy, sell, exchange and hold assets, while its separate DeFi Account provides self-custodial functionality. That means users seeing both Gram Wallet and Walt should not assume they are simply two names for the same product.
Gram Wallet is also rolling out gradually. Durov’s announcement does not mean every Telegram account can access it immediately.
Is Gram Wallet Free and Does It Require KYC?
Durov previously promoted Gram Wallet around “instant zero-fee crypto transactions,” but users should distinguish Telegram-to-Telegram functionality from every possible blockchain transaction. Moving assets externally can still involve blockchain network fees, particularly when transactions interact directly with public networks.
Existing Telegram crypto infrastructure, for example, charges network fees on certain external withdrawals while transfers between users can have different fee structures. The same distinction applies to identity verification.
Gram Wallet’s non-custodial architecture means users can control a wallet without going through the conventional account-opening process associated with a centralized cryptocurrency exchange. That does not mean every financial service accessible through Telegram will be permanently KYC-free. Fiat purchases, regulated payment providers, exchanges or other third-party services can impose their own verification requirements.
Security is another major distinction. Self-custody removes the requirement to trust a centralized company with control of funds, but it transfers more responsibility to the user. Losing access credentials or authorizing malicious transactions can carry consequences that differ significantly from losing access to a conventional custodial account.
Durov said validators have approved the smart contract powering Gram Wallet, allowing future wallet upgrades without requiring complicated migrations. The launch also revives a name deeply connected to Telegram’s crypto history.
Telegram originally raised approximately $1.7 billion in 2018 to develop the TON blockchain and its Gram cryptocurrency before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company over the token offering. Telegram settled the case in 2020, paying an $18.5 million penalty and agreeing to return approximately $1.2 billion to investors.
The open-source TON ecosystem subsequently continued independently, and Toncoin was renamed Gram in June 2026 as Telegram deepened its involvement with the network. Gram Wallet now brings that history full circle.
The bigger question is no longer whether Telegram will launch a native self-custodial wallet. It has. The question is how many of Telegram’s billion-plus users will actually activate one — and whether embedding self-custody directly into a mainstream messaging application can turn crypto wallets from specialist software into an everyday payments feature.