On Monday, July 13, Telegram’s t.me domain was unexpectedly suspended at the registry level. This blocked the short links that millions of people use to access its crypto services. The suspension affected Telegram’s TON-based Wallet service, Mini Apps, and other services tied to The Open Network (TON).
Domain Name Wire first reported the incident. According to them, every t.me address stopped working after the .me registry placed the domain on hold. The downtime has bigger consequences for cryptocurrency because t.me does more than just shorten URLs. It serves as the main entry point to Telegram’s on-chain ecosystem.
Users typically launch Telegram’s custodial Wallet through t.me/wallet. This allows them to buy, store, and transfer assets like USDT, Bitcoin, and Gram (GRAM), the native token of TON. With the domain offline, one of the ecosystem’s main access points disappeared too.
Why the Suspension Happened
The disruption occurred because of a serverHold status. This is an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) code applied by the .me domain registry, not by Telegram’s domain registrar. As per ICANN documentation, serverHold status removes a domain’s DNS records from the internet. This means any website, email, or other connected services relying on the domain stop working.
Registry operators sometimes assign serverHold status for reasons like unpaid dues, verification problems, or suspicion of fraud or security issues. As of now, Telegram and the .me registry have not explained why the hold was placed. Sources like Domain Name Wire and the monitoring account International Cyber Digest confirmed this lack of clarity.
The .me domain is the country-code top-level domain of Montenegro. It has been widely used for branding because “me” is easily seen as a generic suffix. Technical operations are handled by Identity Digital, while commercial matters are managed by a Montenegro-based registry body.
Impact on TON and Users
According to Domain Name Wire, Telegram has a partnership agreement with the registry. This allows the .me registry to assign t.me as Telegram’s short-link domain. This arrangement means one domain is central to all access to Telegram’s messaging ecosystem and its blockchain-based services.
TON describes itself as a Layer-1 blockchain developed by Telegram and the open-source community. Telegram is the biggest distribution platform for mainstream users. Data on TON’s website showed Gram trading at $1.59 on Monday, down 1.99% over the previous 24 hours. Its market capitalization was about $4.33 billion, placing it 21st on CoinMarketCap.
The use of t.me goes beyond the Wallet. Collectible Telegram usernames and phone numbers are tokenized as TON-based digital assets accessed via t.me usernames. Telegram Gifts become TON NFTs, while Mini Apps connect to the blockchain using TON Connect, often launched via t.me links in the messenger. In practice, all these operations depend on the domain working.
What Happens Next
The next thing to watch is whether the .me registry will lift the serverHold status or explain why it was invoked. It is also worth seeing if Telegram creates an additional domain to restore access to its crypto services while the issue remains.
Until then, one of the biggest entry points to the cryptocurrency world, and the gateway to a blockchain ecosystem with a token worth over $4.33 billion, becomes much harder to use.
