Telegram users created more than 700,000 self-custodial wallets in 48 hours, according to founder Pavel Durov. He shared the figure on Nov. 9, 2026. The total includes 333,188 wallet activations in a single day. The spike comes as Telegram moves ahead with its phased rollout of Gram Wallet, a native self-custody wallet inside the messaging app.
Why the wallet count jumped
There is a simple trigger behind the fast growth. Telegram’s wallets turn on automatically when they receive Gram tokens. That means a transfer can create a new wallet without the recipient going through a sign-up process first. It also helps explain how one day produced 333,188 activations, nearly half of the 48-hour total. Gram is the native token of The Open Network, or TON. It was formerly called Toncoin.
For anyone new to the term, self-custodial means the user controls the wallet directly. No exchange or company holds the funds. That also means recovery details matter. If someone loses them, a support desk cannot step in and restore access.
A separate wallet from the existing bot
Telegram already has a crypto wallet presence, which can make the latest numbers confusing. The native Gram Wallet is separate from the @wallet mini-app and bot. That service has reported more than 150 million users. The 700,000 figure refers to self-custodial wallets created through the new native rollout, not activity on the older bot.
The rollout has moved in stages. Durov announced plans for a large self-custody deployment in July 2026. A limited test with selected users followed in late August and early September 2026. The latest figures suggest the feature is now reaching a much wider audience. Telegram has more than one billion users, and the wallet is meant to make peer-to-peer transfers simple across that network.
What the number does and does not show
One caveat is worth keeping in mind. There has been no independent verification of on-chain activity or retention for these wallets so far. Wallet creation and wallet usage are different things. A wallet that switches on because someone received a small amount of Gram is still a new wallet. Whether the owner ever sends, saves or spends anything is another question.
So the 700,000 figure is best read as a measure of reach. It shows how quickly the feature can spread. It does not yet show how sticky it is. The next useful signal will be whether those wallets remain active after the first incoming transfer.
