Morning Minute | Telegram Turns On Crypto Payments for Creators
TylerD's Market Summary
🤯 Telegram Launches Crypto Payments Functionality
Telegram growth is off the charts.
The popular messaging app now boasts 900M monthly active users, up 12.5% in the last year.
And they've added 500M users since 2020.
Now those users will be able to earn crypto.
What Happened?
Yesterday, Telegram's developers announced that users can send "Stars" to content creators and channels that they enjoy.
And those Stars can be converted into TON.
If you aren't familiar with TON, it's the native token for The Open Network - the project founded by Telegram to build a decentralized ecosystem within the app but then abandoned due to regulatory issues.
The TON token has since been taken over by the community and has soared to a whopping $16.5B market cap.
That makes it the 8th biggest cryptocurrency in the world.
And now creators can earn it, on Telegram.
How It Works
The process is pretty simple.
- Users have Stars allotments (Stars is an offchain, in-app currency tied to TON)
- Users can send Stars to creators/channels via reactions
- Creators can convert Stars to TON or use them to pay for advertising
It's similar in many ways to how Reddit's crypto payments worked for a brief period (before being abandoned).
Why It Matters
Crypto payments within social apps haven't really taken off to date, likely for regulatory reasons and others.
But Telegram is becoming THE messaging app for crypto users (driven by memecoin meta) and seems more integrated with crypto than any other app.
Most reddit users never seemed to really care about crypto outside a small niche. It feels different for Telegram.
In app payments just create more incentives for creators to build content (and advertise, and grow) within Telegram.
It's bullish for Telegram's growth, and it's bullish for TON growth and adoption.
Perhaps even for broader crypto adoption.
Kudos to the Telegram team for continuing to push forward...
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- ETH led NFT trading volume with $6.3M on the day (+59%); Solana was next with $2.97M, and then BTC with $1.95M
- ETH NFT leaders were very green up 10-20%; Pudgy +10% at 9.69 ETH, BAYC +17% at 12.65 ETH, Azuki +8% at 4.4, MAYC +9% at 1.93
- rektguy (+25%) and My Pet Hooligans (+24%) were other notable top movers
- BTC NFT leaders were mostly green up 5-10%; NodeMonkes +10% at 0.129 BTC, Puppets +5% at 0.089 BTC, Quantum Cats -8% at 0.248
- The Runes leaders were mixed after several green days; DOG -4% at $290M mc, RSIC -18% at $90M mc, BAMK even at $98M, PUPS +10% to $37M
- Solana NFTs were mixed and continue to be led by DeGods; Mad Lads even at 52 SOL, SMB Gen 2 even at 20, DeGods +10% at 34.5, y00ts +17% at 7.2
- Forgotten Runes Wizards will open their gaming portal for a Public Event starting on Aug 26 after a successful Closed Beta
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:
- The Pacmoon team closed the burn window for PAC but took a snapshot, giving holders who missed more time to claim; ARMY launches later today
- MON Protocol announced a partnership with iAgent Protocol, a DePIN gaming protocol that allows users to train AI Agents based on footage of their gameplay
- MetaMask introduced the MetaMask Card as its first ever crypto debit card allowing purchases directly from self-custodied crypto converted to fiat at point of exchange
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors are red this AM; BTC -4% at $58,500; ETH -4% at $2,630, SOL -3% at $142
- Memecoin majors are more red with DOGE -3%, PEPE -4%, WIF -8%, BONK -4%, MOG -16%
- GIGA surged 20% to $200M mc on Wednesday after the model behind the “Gigachad” meme endorsed GIGA on Instagram
- The US Government transferred $600M of Mt Gox Bitcoin on Wednesday leading to concerns of selling (though no evidence yet)
- Wisconsin now owns 2.89M shares of IBIT worth nearly $100M, disclosed in their latest SEC filing
- USDC founder Jeremy Allaire alluded to USDC coming available on iPhones, possible because Apple just announced it will allow developers to use their payment chip starting in iOS 18.1 (the next iPhone update)
- Fidelity's Head of Digital Asset Management said the firm is evaluating projects like stablecoins, tokenized treasures, onchain credit and more
- Smart fridges in France now allow users to buy food/drinks with USDC on Solana
🚀 Memecoin Movers
- $NEIRO (+1,100%, $20M market cap, ETH)
- $EGL (+1,000%, $14M market cap, SOL)
- $GROK (+11%, $34M market cap, ETH)
- $GIGA (+21%, $236M market cap, SOL)
- $UWU (+20%, $20M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- Overworld Keys (46%, 6 ETH Floor)
- RG Bytes (27%, 0.27 ETH)
- alignDRAW (25%, 1 ETH)
- rektguy (24%, 0.29 ETH)
- CyberKongz (21%, 0.45 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Today is a slower day of mints.
The highlight is likely Pindar van Arman as the 452B reserve drop artist.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- Pindar Van Arman x 452B (10:00 a.m. ET)
- dailofrog - One Summer Day (1:00 p.m. ET)
- 0009 - Adaptive Perceptions (1:00 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.
