Introduction

Telegram Gifts, launched by Telegram in late 2024 and upgraded into TON-based collectibles in early 2025, mark a clear shift in how social platforms embed digital ownership into the everyday behaviour of their users. Tokenised digital assets now sit natively inside a messaging app with over a billion users, rather than in separate Web3 interfaces.

A simple gesture - sending a gift in chat - can evolve into a verifiable, tradeable asset recorded on TON Blockchain. Telegram Gifts, therefore, bridge social expression and asset ownership, creating new on-chain economies and communities.

Why Telegram Gifts Were Needed

Traditional in‑app items such as stickers, emojis, or badges are strong emotional signals but weak forms of property. They are locked to a single database, cannot be traded, and usually disappear with the account.

Telegram Gifts introduces a different model: users still send familiar gifts off‑chain, but can later convert them into on‑chain collectibles on TON Blockchain, transforming a token of appreciation into something that is durably theirs. Ownership, scarcity, and provenance are defined in smart contracts and visible on a public ledger, rather than controlled solely by a centralized platform.

This creates social economies where interaction and value flows are aligned. Users gain a low‑friction first step into Web3, with the complexity of wallets and fees abstracted away. Creators can seamlessly experiment with limited collections and new monetisation loops in a messenger application's UI that they're already familiar with

Telegram Gifts provide large-scale, low-fee proof of blockchain utility in social settings, transforming emotional capital into digital value. For the wider Web3 ecosystem, this demonstrates how tokenisation can emerge from mainstream consumer products rather than speculative trading venues.

Current State of Play — Data and Growth

Data from TON Foundation's Verticals dashboard on Dune and dedicated Telegram Gifts dashboards indicates that, as of late 2025, Telegram Gifts have generated about $78.6 million in primary sales, roughly $312.2 million in total trading volume, and a fully diluted valuation near $147 million for gift collections.

Over 541,000 unique wallets have traded gifts on‑chain, with thousands more created as users upgrade gifts into collectibles. TON's guide to analysing users and token flows on Dune confirms that Telegram Gifts are tracked alongside other NFT collections in standardized tables. We can see that only around 5% of upgraded gifts are currently live on‑chain, so observable on-chain trades represent the visible portion of a much larger off‑chain gifting base.

Tonstat shows wallet growth accelerating after collectibles launched, suggesting that everyday Telegram users, not legacy NFT traders, drive much of the activity. Taken together, these signals show that the gift ecosystem achieved nine‑figure volume in under six months and built an on‑chain economy powered by participation rather than speculation.

How People Are Using NFT Gifts and How Builders Integrate Them

The user journey is intentionally simple.

First, a user purchases a gift using Telegram Stars and sends it as any other expressive item in a chat. Second, the gift enters a 21‑day hold period where it cannot be traded or upgraded into a collectible. After these 21 days, if an upgrade is available, the user can upgrade the

Third, once the hold period has elapsed, the user may upgrade the gift to a collectible on TON using the upgrade button, if an upgrade is available. If an upgrade is unavailable, the user will be notified when Telegram releases an upgrade.

Once upgraded into a collectible on TON, the asset is fully unlocked for use within the Telegram ecosystem. The collectible can be displayed on their profile, traded directly in chat, or listed on external marketplaces such as Getgems or Portals via bots and mini‑apps.

The power of this process is that key custody, fees, and settlement are handled behind the scenes; to the user, it still feels like simple messaging, now layered with ownership. Builders are already extending what's possible. Mini‑apps like Azuki add special rewards for holders of specific gifts, turning collectibles into inputs for game‑like economies.

Bots and channels check collectible ownership to gate access, reward participation, or trigger on‑chain actions. Each new pattern of use feeds TON's wider ecosystem by driving wallet activation, transaction volume, and communities built around shared collections.

Big Picture: NFTs and Social Platforms

More broadly, Telegram Gifts show how social networks can evolve into economic networks where ordinary actions carry on‑chain value. The same mechanisms can power exclusive channel access, creator loyalty rewards, and in‑chat commerce settled in TON‑denominated assets, pointing to a future in which digital ownership is woven directly into conversations and communities, rather than isolated in standalone NFT marketplaces.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Telegram Gifts demonstrates that the most accessible path to mainstream digital ownership runs through existing social platforms, where users already spend time and transact. By letting users upgrade expressive gestures into on‑chain collectibles, Telegram shows that blockchain utility can enhance communication without demanding new habits.

TON Blockchain provides the infrastructure that makes this viable: fast finality, low fees, and a developer‑friendly environment. As builders experiment with gifts and mini‑apps, richer forms of social‑native tokenisation should emerge. Gifting has always been emotional. On TON, it is now also ownable.