Telegram to Create Crypto Wallet, Decentralized Exchange After FTX Collapse

As the cryptocurrency industry reels from the collapse of some of its former leading companies, instant messaging platform Telegram is hatching plans to capitalize on growing distrust of centralized intermediaries. .

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the popular app among cryptophiles, announced on Wednesday that Telegram will build a set of decentralized tools, including a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and non-custodial wallets. The owners of these wallets have full control over their private keys and therefore their crypto assets.

“The blockchain industry was built on the promise of decentralization but ended up being concentrated in the hands of a few who began to abuse their power,” the executive wrote in a Telegram. Publish, citing the collapse and subsequent bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX. “In this way, we can undo the harm caused by over-centralization, which has let down hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users.”

Durov highlighted the success of Fragment, a decentralized auction platform he helped build, and The Open Network (TON), its underlying blockchain. Fragment sold $50 million worth of Telegram usernames in less than a month, according to Durov, and will expand beyond usernames in the coming days.

The TON blockchain was originally developed by Telegram but was abandoned in May 2020 following a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit over the token $1.7 billion sale of the company that the agency judge an unregistered offering of securities. End of 2021, Durov reported support for the developers who took over the project.

The CEO of Telegram did not specify if the company plans to develop the wallet and the exchange on TON. A representative for the TON Foundation, which oversees the blockchain’s growth, did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, the foundation announced a $126 million bailout fund to support crypto projects in the face of the fallout from FTX’s collapse. Telegram claimed to have 700 million active users in June. It is popular in countries of the former Soviet Union.