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On Tuesday, the Ukrainian National Police and Security Service announced the dismantling of a fake investment platform network based in Kyiv. This gang stole cryptocurrency from users in over 20 countries through built-in wallet theft tools. Investigators have currently confirmed 62 victims, including citizens from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, France, the UK, Canada, and Israel. The organizers recruited more than 46 Ukrainians, operating multiple offices in Kyiv and surrounding areas, where developers were responsible for building the fake platform and resisting bans, while other members handled customer service and security.According to the Ukrainian Security Service, the organizer is a 25-year-old IT expert, and the gang's peak monthly revenue reached up to $1 million. The scam began with advertisements for cryptocurrency investment projects on Telegram. After users registered, they connected their wallets and invested funds, while gang members manually forged transactions to show a continuously increasing balance in the user backend. When users requested withdrawals, the platform required them to connect their main wallet and approve a small "test" transaction under the pretext of verification. This authorization immediately triggered the built-in theft tool on the website, transferring assets to wallets controlled by the gang and locking the victims' accounts.Investigators tracked down server equipment storing the gang's database in the Netherlands, which recorded victim information, wallet addresses, stolen amounts, internal communications, and platform operation data, as well as user passports, phone numbers, emails, login passwords, and photos. Police executed 34 searches in Kyiv and surrounding areas, seizing over 100 computers, more than 100 mobile phones, 79 SIM cards, one GSM gateway, cash, and 15 vehicles.

Telegram has set its self-hosted Gram wallet as the default wallet in user settings, while renaming Wallet in Telegram to Walt. Telegram founder Pavel Durov previewed the Gram wallet in July, planning to introduce a native non-custodial wallet for each Telegram app.The Gram wallet will serve as the transaction layer for transfers and payments on Telegram, supporting the purchase of Telegram Collectibles (including gifts, usernames, and phone numbers) as well as services and daily consumption payments. The Gram wallet remains connected to Walt, which allows users to recharge their Gram wallet with multi-chain crypto assets.The renaming of Wallet in Telegram reflects that its services have surpassed the initial positioning primarily for purchasing and holding Gram (formerly Toncoin). Walt supports recharging, holding, and withdrawing over 300 crypto assets across 4 blockchains, as well as trading more than 200 assets, and offers over 100 tokenized stocks, ETFs, and metals. The product also includes crypto yield services and perpetual contracts. The Open Platform (TOP) and Walt founder and CEO Andrew Rogozov stated that they initially started as a simple wallet for purchasing TON, but over the past four years have grown into a full-scale crypto platform within Telegram, launching Earn, real-world assets, and perpetual trading.

On August 24, WEEX Exchange announced the official launch of its TG Mini Program WEEX Telegram Mini App, which supports registration, deposits and withdrawals, spot/contract trading, creating a "ready-to-use" lightweight trading experience. At the same time, WEEX launched exclusive welfare activities for Telegram Mini Program users, where users can participate to receive up to 12 USDT contract bonuses, up to $1,500 worth of BTC position airdrops, and have a chance to win an iPhone 17 Pro. Activity period: 8/24 18:00 - 9/14 23:59:59 (UTC+8).

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated that Telegram has applied to ICANN for the .gram domain zone. If the application is approved, approximately one billion Telegram users will be able to obtain exclusive second-level domains, such as yourname.gram.Users will be able to quickly build interactive websites under Telegram's hosting with a single prompt. This initiative aims to further expand Telegram's ecological service capabilities, combining instant messaging with personal domains and website hosting.

He Yi posted on the X platform stating that he will not contact users via email, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Although he serves as an official administrator for Binance in some Telegram groups, he will not send private messages to any Telegram accounts. For public communication, please contact through this X account or the Binance Square account, and be wary of scams impersonating Binance staff.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov stated that Telegram was briefly removed from the App Store by Apple recently due to a user embedding illegal pornographic content in a public group. The app was restored within hours.Durov mentioned that the attackers exploited a technical vulnerability to insert AI-modified illegal content into old messages in active groups, hiding the content by editing historical messages, making it difficult for regular group members to discover and report it in a timely manner. Such attacks are classified as "takedown extortion," where attackers use automated accounts to embed violations in public groups and report them to platforms like Apple, attempting to force group administrators to pay a ransom, or else the community would be banned due to platform rules.Durov further explained that Telegram continuously combats illegal content through user reports, AI filtering, content hashing, and other mechanisms. This incident is not a systemic issue of the platform but rather a targeted attack exploiting rule loopholes by the attackers.He also warned that Apple's direct removal of the app without prior contact with Telegram could pose risks to all mobile applications that provide user-generated content (UGC), and platform developers need to enhance their defenses against malicious reporting and "takedown attacks."

According to The Block, a Telegram spokesperson stated that Telegram has been re-listed on the Apple App Store and will soon be available to all users again. The independent monitoring platform AppleCensorship shows that Telegram is currently available in 172 tested App Store regions.

Market news, Telegram has been removed from the Apple iOS App Store.

According to the Korea Herald, in order to combat drug trafficking using virtual assets, the South Korean police have established a specialized virtual asset tracking and investigation team consisting of 41 members, and have intensified investigations into drug sales networks on platforms such as Telegram since August 3.In the first half of this year, South Korea conducted large-scale crackdowns from March to June, arresting a total of 5,203 drug offenders and detaining 1,039 individuals; compared to the same period last year, the number of arrests increased by 94 (an increase of 1.8%), and the number of detentions increased by 75 (an increase of 7.8%).

According to Cointelegraph, Australia's internet regulator has filed a lawsuit against Telegram, accusing it of failing to remove content that supports terrorism.Previously, Russia accused Telegram founder Pavel Durov of assisting terrorist activities and issued an international arrest warrant.

According to monitoring by The Bitcoin Historian, the CEO of Telegram announced that a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet will be launched for all users this summer, with Telegram having over 1 billion active users.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated in a post on his personal channel that this summer will see "the largest deployment of non-custodial crypto wallets in human history." Telegram plans to integrate a native non-custodial Gram wallet into all its applications.Pavel Durov mentioned that the wallet will provide over 1 billion Telegram users with an instant, zero-fee cryptocurrency trading experience, further popularizing on-chain payments. He stated, "We are bringing the native non-custodial Gram wallet to every Telegram application."

According to FinanceFeeds, security researchers have discovered an information-stealing malware targeting macOS devices that is attacking cryptocurrency users. This malware can hijack Telegram Desktop sessions, steal passwords and wallet databases, further controlling user accounts and stealing digital assets. Currently affected wallets and applications include software wallets like Exodus, Atomic, Electrum, Wasabi, and Monero.The malware is capable of extracting sensitive information from macOS Keychain, Safari Cookies, Apple Notes, Telegram Desktop, and multiple cryptocurrency wallet-related databases, including login credentials, authenticated session files, wallet data, and browser extension information. Security analysis points out that the danger of this attack chain lies in its reliance not on a single wallet vulnerability, but on collecting various types of data from the device, linking device intrusion, account takeover, wallet cracking, and mnemonic phrase theft together. Among these, Telegram Desktop sessions have become a key target.Attackers can copy authenticated Telegram local session data and restore the login on another Mac device without needing to enter a phone number, verification code, or Telegram two-factor authentication password. This means that Telegram 2FA cannot provide complete protection in this attack scenario, as the attacker is not performing a new login but is exploiting an already trusted local session. For cryptocurrency users, the risks are further amplified. Since Telegram is widely used for exchange customer service, project communities, OTC trading, and wallet communication, once attackers gain access to user session permissions, they could impersonate the victim, read private chats, locate asset information, and even spread malicious links to contacts.

According to International Cyber Digest (@IntCyberDigest), the core domain name t[.]me of Telegram has been set to serverHold status by the .me registry, causing the domain to go offline from the global DNS, making all t.me links inaccessible. Currently, Telegram, the .me registry, and the backend operator Identity Digital have not provided any public explanation.Analysts have pointed out that .me is the country code top-level domain for Montenegro, which is currently in the process of negotiating EU membership. This blockade may be related to the advancement of EU regulatory matters.

Messari released the "TON Q1 2026 Report," which shows that despite a 26.4% drop in the price of TON during the quarter, the overall TON ecosystem remains resilient, supported by Telegram's large user base. Among them, revenue from Telegram products settled through Fragment decreased by 20.3% quarter-on-quarter to $88.5 million, while recurring revenues such as Premium subscriptions and advertising only fell by 10.5%, performing better than non-recurring businesses like Stars.Data shows that driven by the demand for on-chain products such as Telegram usernames, numbers, and Gifts, the market share of TON NFTs in the cross-chain market increased by 130.4% quarter-on-quarter, reaching 35.5%. In terms of DeFi, the total value locked (TVL) in USD terms decreased by 34.9% quarter-on-quarter, but in TON terms, it only fell by 11.6%. The average daily transfer amount of USDT dropped by 32.5% to $7.7 million, although the average daily number of transfers remained around 73,600, indicating that peer-to-peer Telegram transfers and Mini App payments are replacing large DeFi transactions.In terms of user activity, the number of daily active addresses on TON decreased by 8.8% quarter-on-quarter to 90,800, indicating no significant new user growth in the first quarter. However, the number of transactions per address increased from 19.2 to 21, reflecting enhanced engagement among existing users.After the end of the first quarter, the "Make TON Great Again (MTONGA)" initiative launched by TON has completed four out of seven measures, including the launch of Catchain 2 for sub-second finality, reducing transaction fees by about six times, and making Telegram the largest validator of TON, with a current staking size of 2.2 million TON. Messari states that the second quarter will be a key observation period to test whether infrastructure upgrades can drive a large-scale conversion of Telegram's broader user base into active users on the TON chain.

According to CoinDesk, newly unsealed court documents show that Wall Street quantitative trading giant Jane Street is accused of obtaining insider non-public information from Terraform Labs through a private Telegram group called "Bryce's Secret" before the collapse of Terra in 2022, and preemptively selling approximately $192 million UST while establishing short positions, profiting about $134 million during the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which was around $40 billion.The lawsuit claims that Jane Street sold approximately $85 million UST on Curve just 9 minutes after Terraform withdrew $150 million liquidity from the Curve pool on May 7, 2022, with the related wallet subsequently suspected of being a significant address that contributed to the UST depegging.Jane Street denies the allegations, stating that the lawsuit is "baseless" and that it will actively defend itself. The lawsuit also names co-founder Robert Granieri and trader Michael Huang, accusing them of violating federal securities laws and the Commodity Exchange Act.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted on the X platform that Telegram now supports communication between bots.He stated that this move responds to the needs of AI developers, allowing autonomous agents to have a communication layer that can be tracked by humans.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on the X platform that TON has launched a unified smart contract toolchain called Acton. The new toolchain increases TON's development efficiency by 10 times, making the creation, testing, and deployment of smart contracts more convenient, and it is fully prepared for AI. This toolchain replaces TON's previous scattered tool stack, unifying it into a single development process.According to the introduction, Acton is an integrated command-line tool built around the Tolk language, covering the entire process of project creation, testing, debugging, dApp integration, deployment, and verification.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated in a personal channel that TON leads in the final confirmation time of blocks among L1 chains. Data shows that TON's final confirmation time is about 0.6 seconds, faster than mainstream L1s like Avalanche (about 1 second) and BNB Chain (about 1.1 seconds), while Ethereum takes 13 minutes and Bitcoin about 1 hour.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted on the X platform that the TON network transaction fees have been reduced by 6 times.He also revealed that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the largest validator of the network and plans to launch new development tools and performance upgrades in the next 2 to 3 weeks.