First Telegram username sold at auction for $ 1.4 million

on November 2, the first Telegram username, @auto, was sold at the Fragment blockchain auction. The total cost of the nickname was 900,000 Toncoin (about $ 1.4 million).

The first bid of 10,000 TON (about $ 18,400 at the time) was made on October 26. «For the first time in the history of social media, a fair, transparent market for usernames has been created. Finally, people will have ownership of their social media addresses, which are protected by a decentralized blockchain network,» Pavel Durov wrote on his Telegram channel at the time.

It is worth noting that legally, Fragment Corp., the company that conducted the auction, is not affiliated with Telegram Messenger Inc. and is not its subsidiary. At the same time, Telegram has the right to delete a purchased nickname if it «violates the Telegram Terms of Service or the laws of certain countries.» It should be added that the @auto user account has not yet been created.

Earlier, Telegram launched a service for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. The developers of the Telegram bot @WalletBot announced the addition of the ability to buy/sell cryptocurrency on the platform. The commission for the sale of digital assets is 0.9%. Currently, only 2 cryptocurrencies can be purchased: Toncoin (TON) and Bitcoin, but the developers promise to add other digital assets in the near future.