Within a span of one month, Telegram, a cloud-based and centralized instant messaging service platform has sold $50 million ‘usernames’ on a blockchain, The Open Network, a network developed by Telegram itself, informed the company’s CEO, Pavel Durov in a Telegram message.

In October, Telegram provided its users the opportunity to purchase usernames for its app through Fragment, a blockchain-based platform. On ‘The Open Network’ also known as TON, interested users can secure ownership of their ‘usernames’ by purchasing them.

Users of Telegram can purchase their username using the cryptocurrency named TON, which is a native asset of Telegram. The CEO of the App, Durov claimed in the same Telegram message. Certain ‘usernames’ were purchased for a large amount of money on the platform Fragment. Such as an auction for the username ‘@news” went as high as 994,000 TON, about $1.7 million, according to their official website.

The Telegram CEO also shared their plan to develop Fragment, to expand beyond the ownership of the ‘usernames’, they are also planning to build a host of blockchain tools for Telegram, which will include, decentralized exchanges, and crypto wallets as well. Moreover, users can access all these services from the Telegram app itself. 

Durov said, “Telegram’s next step is to build a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges for millions of people to securely trade and store cryptocurrencies. This way we can fix the wrongs caused by the excessive centralization, which let down hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users.”