In less than five months — from late March to August 2026 — Telegram has taken several major steps in the platform’s development. Viewed separately, some of these events might look like ordinary technological updates. But taken together, they form a much more interesting picture.
Telegram is simultaneously developing artificial intelligence, bots, the TON blockchain infrastructure, digital assets, Communities, and content creation tools. In a short period of time, these changes have affected nearly every major layer of the ecosystem — from TON’s technical foundation to the ways users interact with services inside Telegram.
For the username market, what matters most is not the sheer number of updates, but the fact that each new direction gradually adds new use cases for a strong digital name.
Let’s look at the key events of the past five months one by one and examine what exactly each of them changes for the market.
March 31: AI Editor — Telegram Expands Its Content Creation Capabilities
On March 31, Telegram integrated an AI editor powered by Cocoon into the app. It can translate text, correct it, rewrite it in different styles, and perform other operations directly while a message is being created.
In the same update, Telegram expanded polls, added support for Live Photos, document scanning, and additional automation tools through bots.
At first glance, the connection to the username market may seem fairly indirect. What matters, however, is the overall direction of development.
Telegram is increasingly moving beyond the role of an app where users simply send messages or publish finished content. More and more work can now be done directly inside the platform — writing an article, editing text, translating it, preparing a publication, and immediately distributing it to an audience.
For creators, companies, and thematic projects, this gradually reduces dependence on external services.
And the more substantial activity takes place directly inside Telegram, the more important a distinctive name within this environment becomes.
A strong username in this context is no longer just a technical account address. It becomes a permanent identifier for a creator, project, or company across all Telegram-related formats — from communication to content publishing.
The introduction of an AI editor, of course, cannot by itself drive username prices higher. But it reinforces the broader trend: Telegram is creating more and more reasons to build a full-fledged presence directly within its own platform.
April 9: TON Becomes Significantly Faster
On April 9, TON received a major technical upgrade that, according to its developers, increased network performance by roughly tenfold, significantly increased block production frequency, and brought transaction finality close to one second.
Pavel Durov called it the first stage of the MTONGA — Make TON Great Again program.
For the collectible username market, this is a much more direct development.
Telegram collectible usernames exist as digital assets on the TON network, while Fragment uses this network to process transactions involving them. TON’s technical capabilities therefore also define the capabilities of the infrastructure on which the market operates.
The main result of the April upgrade is a substantial increase in scalability.
For today’s username trading volumes, a tenfold increase in performance may seem excessive. But Telegram is clearly building infrastructure for more than just the market as it exists today.
If digital assets are to become a mass-market part of the ecosystem, the network must be prepared to serve not thousands or tens of thousands of active participants, but potentially millions of users and an enormous number of simultaneous transactions.
A higher-performance network creates the foundation for:
— growth in the number of digital asset transactions
— mass adoption of Mini Apps
— development of additional marketplaces and services
— more complex interactions between different TON assets
— scaling of Telegram’s entire digital economy
In this sense, the significance of the upgrade lies not so much in making an individual transaction on Fragment faster, but in making TON technically ready for a market far larger than the one that exists today.
April 23: TON Fees Drop Sixfold
Just two weeks later, another major step followed.
Durov announced that TON fees had been reduced by approximately sixfold — to around 0.00039 TON per transaction.
It is important to distinguish between TON network fees and the fees charged by individual platforms. Lower network fees do not automatically mean lower fees on Fragment.
But the significance of this event for the development of the ecosystem is still considerable.
If the April 9 upgrade primarily addressed network performance and scalability, the fee reduction addresses the cost of using TON at scale.
For a transaction involving an expensive username worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, the difference in a small network fee is practically irrelevant.
But if Telegram’s digital economy is to extend far beyond trading the most expensive assets, the situation changes.
Millions of small transactions require a different economic model: transactions need to be cheap enough that users barely have to think about their cost.
This is especially important for future services in which digital assets are used regularly rather than purchased once and held for years.
As a result, within just two weeks TON received two fundamental improvements:
— significantly higher performance
— significantly cheaper transactions
For the username market, this means that the surrounding infrastructure is developing not only toward high-value collectible transactions, but also toward the potential mass use of digital assets.
May 4: Telegram Strengthens Its Direct Role in TON’s Development
On May 4, an event took place that was strategic rather than purely technical.
Pavel Durov announced that Telegram should become the main driving force behind TON’s development and the network’s largest validator.
This significantly reduces the previous distance between Telegram and TON.
Following the well-known events surrounding the original Telegram Open Network project, the network developed independently from the company for a considerable period of time. Its connection to Telegram remained obvious, but formally TON was a separate ecosystem.
The situation is now changing.
Telegram is taking an increasingly active role in developing the infrastructure that already supports Fragment, digital gifts, and other platform assets.
For the collectible username market, this is fundamentally important.
Any digital asset derives value not only from its own characteristics, but also from the stability of the environment in which it exists. For a username owner, it matters whether Telegram will remain as interested in TON and Fragment several years from now as it is today.
May 7: AI Bots — A Username Becomes the Address of a Service
Just a few days later, Telegram introduced another of the year’s most interesting updates from the perspective of the future role of usernames.
Bots could now be invoked directly in chats through their usernames. Bot-to-bot interaction capabilities were expanded, streaming responses were introduced, and bots could be connected to a user profile with predefined permissions.
In essence, Telegram is beginning to create an environment for a new generation of digital assistants capable of performing tasks directly inside the platform.
For the username market, this introduces a very specific new use case.
A username can become the address of a digital service.
Consider a few simple examples:
— @translate
— @lawyer
— @travel
— @music
— @shop
If a useful service operates behind such a name, users can access it directly through a short and intuitive identifier.
This is where memorability becomes especially important.
A hypothetical @best_translate_service_2026 may technically perform exactly the same function as @translate. But from a user’s perspective, these are completely different addresses.
A short, commonly used word is:
— easier to remember
— easier to type
— easier to recommend to someone else
— easier to use in advertising
— more naturally associated with a specific function
For decades, strong domain names have played a similar role on the internet. Users remember a short address and return to it directly.
Within Telegram, usernames are gradually acquiring a similar role.
This is particularly interesting for words that describe a service, profession, action, or an entire product category.
If AI bots continue to develop, such names may be valued not only for their aesthetics or rarity, but also for their ability to become convenient access points to in-demand services.
June 1: Toncoin Becomes Gram
On June 1, Pavel Durov announced the next stage of MTONGA: TON’s native currency would be renamed Gram. The blockchain itself would retain the name TON.
To an outside observer, this change may appear largely cosmetic. However, the name Gram carries important historical context.
This was the name of the currency in the original Telegram Open Network concept. After the original project was discontinued and TON continued developing independently, the name disappeared from the ecosystem’s core structure for several years.
Now Telegram is bringing it back.
As a result, the structure becomes clearer:
Telegram — the platform
TON — the blockchain infrastructure
Gram — the network’s native currency
The renaming itself does not directly affect the username market or create a new use case for usernames.
But it shows that Telegram is not simply using the existing TON infrastructure — it is increasingly building a cohesive system of products and names around it.
For collectible usernames, this is more of a broad fundamental factor: the asset no longer exists within an isolated experimental market, but is becoming part of Telegram’s increasingly structured digital economy.
June 9–11: Telegram Comes to Apple Watch and Wear OS
In June, Telegram released full-featured apps for Apple Watch and Wear OS devices.
Users gained the ability to read chats, send messages, view content, and interact with Telegram directly from wearable devices.
At the same time, bot messages gained expanded capabilities, including tables, formulas, nested quotes, and other ways of presenting information.
For the username market, this is perhaps the most indirect event on the list.
The launch on smartwatches does not in itself create a new use for a digital name and should not directly affect its market value.
But the event matters as part of the broader picture.
Telegram is steadily expanding the number of devices and situations in which users interact with the platform.
Phones, computers, browsers, Mini Apps, and now wearable devices are gradually becoming parts of a single environment.
The broader Telegram’s presence becomes in users’ everyday digital lives, the more resilient the overall ecosystem becomes — the same ecosystem in which channels, bots, services, and usernames exist.
July 14: Communities Make It Possible to Build an Entire System Around One Name
On July 14, Telegram introduced Communities, allowing multiple channels, groups, and bots to be brought together around a single topic.
At the same time, Telegram Premium users received an advanced publishing editor with headings, tables, lists, quotes, code, images, and video. Cocoon also gained additional content-related capabilities.
For the username market, the introduction of Communities is the most interesting part of this update.
Previously, one strong name was most often associated with one primary object — a channel, group, account, or bot.
Now a much larger structure can be built around a single name.
Take the hypothetical username @football.
Such a name could potentially bring together:
— a main news channel
— a general discussion group
— separate groups for individual leagues
— a bot with statistics and results
— a match notification service
— thematic projects dedicated to individual clubs
— a full-fledged Community connecting all of these directions
Under this model, the value of a strong name is no longer determined solely by its ability to attract attention to a single channel.
It can become the name of an entire thematic vertical within Telegram.
This is why Communities are particularly relevant for:
— major commercial categories
— geographical names
— sports
— finance
— travel
— technology
— media
— other broad topics that naturally contain multiple separate directions
The advanced publishing editor further strengthens this model.
The more complete the content that can be created inside Telegram, the less a major thematic project needs to redirect its audience to external platforms.
As a result, a strong username can bring together not just a single channel, but an entire independent information ecosystem.
August 18: The .gram Application Changes the Very Concept of a Telegram Username
On August 18, an event took place that could potentially have the most direct impact on the username market of anything during the period under review.
Pavel Durov announced that Telegram had applied to ICANN to create its own global top-level domain, .gram.
The following model was given as an example:
@durov → durov.gram
@monk → monk.gram
In addition, Telegram plans to allow users to create interactive websites at these addresses, hosted by the platform itself, using an ordinary text prompt to AI.
This is where the boundaries of the username market could potentially begin to change for the first time.
Until now, when purchasing a rare name, a buyer primarily evaluated its potential within Telegram.
If .gram is approved by ICANN and Telegram actually links second-level domains to its existing username system, an entirely new valuation criterion will emerge.
A name would need to work well in two forms:
@travel
travel.gram
or:
@music
music.gram
or:
@lawyer
lawyer.gram
For strong words, this combination feels natural.
A hypothetical @travel could then potentially serve simultaneously as:
— a Telegram username
— the name of a project or company
— the address of a channel or Community
— the name of a bot or AI-powered service
— a collectible digital asset
— the internet domain travel.gram
That represents a substantially broader set of functions than simply having an attractive name inside a messenger.
The introduction of a domain zone could also lead to another interesting change in the market.
Today, two usernames may be perceived as roughly equally attractive within Telegram. But once a domain component is added, one of them may look significantly more natural in front of .gram.
This potentially creates a new measure of quality: how well a username works both as a Telegram username and as an internet domain.
For common words, short commercial terms, professions, geographical names, and other strong, meaningful names, this could become particularly important.
For now, however, one crucial caveat remains. The .gram domain has not yet been approved by ICANN.
Telegram has also not published detailed rules for allocating future domains or confirmed exactly how they will be linked to collectible usernames.
Therefore, the statement:
collectible @name = automatic right to name.gram
remains an assumption at this point.
The domain allocation mechanism will be one of the main factors determining .gram’s actual impact on the market.
Nevertheless, the application itself points to a clear direction: Telegram is beginning to view its system of digital names as something much broader than simply account addresses inside a messenger.
Conclusion: Five Months of Telegram Development and the Prospects for the Username Market
Looking at the events of the past five months as a whole, it becomes clear that Telegram is simultaneously developing three interconnected layers of its ecosystem.
The first is technical infrastructure.
TON has become significantly faster, fees have fallen, and Telegram itself has taken a more direct role in the network’s continued development.
This creates the technical foundation for the growth of the platform’s digital economy.
The second is services and capabilities within Telegram.
AI, bots, Communities, and new publishing tools are gradually increasing the number of tasks users can perform directly within the platform.
Telegram is no longer competing only with other messengers. In certain areas, it is beginning to take on the functions of social networks, publishing platforms, services, applications, and AI tools.
The third is the system of digital names.
And this is the layer that is most interesting from the perspective of the username market.
Perhaps the biggest change in the coming years will not be an overall rise in prices, but a change in the answer to a more fundamental question: what exactly are buyers willing to pay for?
In the early stages of the market, rarity, name length, and the visual appeal of character combinations were among the most important factors.
Those factors are not going away.
But as Telegram develops, the practical usefulness of a name may carry increasing weight.
The most interesting usernames are becoming those that can naturally serve as:
— a brand name
— a thematic direction
— a commercial category
— a service name
— a Community name
— a bot address
— the name of a profession or service
— a geographical name
— a potential internet domain
This may lead not so much to uniform growth across the entire market as to a more pronounced separation of assets by quality.
A short combination of characters may be rare while having no obvious practical use.
At the same time, a simple common word can work across several use cases and be immediately understandable to a potential buyer without any additional explanation.
In such a model, rarity remains important, but it is no longer the only source of value.
The market may gradually begin to evaluate digital names based on a combination of factors:
— rarity
— brevity
— recognizability
— clarity
— commercial applicability
— memorability
— ease of use
— the number of services and projects that can be brought together around a single name
The .gram application potentially adds another criterion to this list — how suitable a name is for use as a full-fledged internet domain.
This is where the events of the past five months begin to form a coherent picture:
— Telegram strengthens TON’s technical infrastructure
— expands the capabilities of bots and artificial intelligence
— creates tools for building larger Communities
— develops content creation and publishing within the platform itself
— announces its intention to create its own global .gram domain zone
Each of these developments addresses a different task. Together, however, they gradually increase the number of functions that one strong digital name can perform.
That is why the key factor in the future development of the username market may be not simply growth in Telegram’s user base or higher trading volumes on Fragment.
What matters far more is something else — the expanding practical value of the username itself.
If Telegram continues moving in the same direction, strong digital names may increasingly be viewed not merely as collectible assets, but as infrastructure elements for businesses, services, communities, and digital identity.
This is likely to become one of the main processes shaping the Telegram username market in the coming years.
