Telegram Reports 700,000+ New Self-Custodial Wallets in 48 Hours on Gram Rollout
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said more than 700,000 self-custodial wallets were created on the platform over 48 hours, driven by the phased rollout of the native Gram Wallet. Independent analysts note that wallet creation does not yet show sustained on-chain activity, and TON's active wallet and DeFi figures remain far smaller.
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Story Updates
- Updated Nov 9, 2026, 02:28 PM: The Defiant reports the Gram explorer's creation count includes wallets with no on-chain transactions.
The Reported Figures
Telegram users created more than 700,000 self-custodial wallets in 48 hours, according to founder Pavel Durov's November 9 post on X. The two outlets that reported the figure give slightly different breakdowns: Crypto Briefing cites the 700,000-plus total and 333,188 activations on a single day, while Crypto.news cites a dashboard showing 714,844 registrations over the two-day period, including 329,952 created on November 9. Neither outlet has independently verified the underlying dashboard.
What the Explorer Counts
A new report from The Defiant clarifies what the headline number measures. The Gram blockchain explorer's creation count includes wallets that have never made an on-chain transaction, so it is a registration metric rather than a usage metric. That distinction matters for reading the 700,000 figure against the network's activity data.
How the Wallets Are Created
The growth is tied to a mechanic built into the rollout. Telegram's native wallets activate automatically when a user receives Gram, the native token of The Open Network (TON), previously known as Toncoin. Durov described this as viral adoption: each transfer can create a new wallet for the recipient without any prior setup. The Gram rebrand was approved by community vote in June with 81.22% support, and the underlying blockchain and existing balances were left unchanged.
The native Gram Wallet is separate from the @wallet mini-app and bot, which Crypto Briefing reports has more than 150 million users. The 700,000 figure refers only to the new self-custodial rollout.
Rollout Timeline and Scope
Durov announced the self-custody deployment in July, with a limited test for selected users in late August and early September. Crypto.news reports the phased rollout began on August 31. Telegram counts more than one billion monthly users, though the wallet is not yet available to all of them.
Activity Versus Creation
Market researcher Ismail Rustamov, in a November 6 analysis cited by Crypto.news, put network activity far below the registration figures. He estimated about 5 million daily transactions, roughly 282,000 active wallets over 24 hours, and around 2.2 million monthly active wallets, or about 0.2% of Telegram's reported user base. He also reported TON's total value locked falling to about $42.9 million from $92 million in May, and daily decentralized finance activity of roughly $2.7 million.
The 700,000 figure therefore measures reach rather than engagement. It shows how quickly the feature can spread, but not yet how many of the new wallets send, hold or spend assets.
Why It Matters
For Traders
Wallet creation figures alone do not indicate buying or selling pressure, so watch on-chain transaction counts on TON before reading the registration surge as demand.
For Investors
The gap between roughly 700,000 new wallets and about 2.2 million monthly active wallets suggests adoption depends on whether users stay active after activation.
For Builders
Auto-activation on receipt makes every Gram transfer an onboarding event, so apps integrating TON should plan for wallets that are created but never transact.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
