Wallet, a hosted wallet bot on Telegram, said merchants should determine for themselves whether their jurisdiction allows them to accept cryptocurrency payments.

The cryptocurrency payments industry continues to grow, with crypto-friendly Telegram Messenger launching new cryptocurrency payment options.

Wallet, a Telegram bot that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin

Bitcoin

The new Wallet Pay service provides crypto payment transactions between users and retail businesses, enabling direct payments within the Telegram interface.

Announcing the news on July 13, Wallet told Cointelegraph that the new payment feature will be available immediately in all jurisdictions supported by the wallet service.

A Wallet spokesperson said that the current list of jurisdictions supported by Wallet Pay includes most countries except the United States and countries blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force. For example, Wallet Pay does not provide services for countries such as Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.

Since some of the countries where Wallet bot operates do not allow residents to pay with cryptocurrencies, the wallet service has handed the responsibility of compliance to local businesses. A representative of the wallet said:

“Businesses should decide whether they are permitted to operate in their jurisdiction before applying to use Wallet Pay.”

Jurisdictions that do not allow residents to pay for products and services with cryptocurrencies include Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, and others. Russia, which officially banned domestic cryptocurrency payments in 2020, is the second-largest country for Telegram downloads after India, according to Statista. Indonesia, Egypt, and Vietnam are also among the top ten countries for Telegram app downloads.

A Wallet Pay representative noted that the platform does not know which merchants will first test its payment functionality, as the company has not yet started the Know Your Business (KYB) process. The spokesperson said:

“Our support team has collected hundreds of requests, but we haven’t started the KYB process for these requests before launch, so we don’t know yet who will be the first to implement the feature.”

The representative also stressed that the company operates independently from Telegram. Wallet bots and applications are based on the Telegram Web Apps open protocol, which allows developers to create their own applications and services on Telegram.

The payment service is available through a dedicated Telegram bot or the official Wallet Pay website. If users are considering trying the bot, they should be careful to ensure they verify the source of the bot.

Wallet’s new payment feature supports the three cryptocurrencies currently offered by its wallet service. These cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Tether,

Tether

$1.00

and TON.

Unlike self-custodial or non-custodial wallets like MetaMask, the Telegram Wallet bot runs a custodial wallet with its own fee structure.

“As of today, the wallet is a custodial solution,” the spokesperson told Cointelegraph. The representative added that fees for cryptocurrency payments “will be between 1% and 3% during the testing period.”

According to wallet support data, the Telegram wallet bot currently also charges a commission of 0.0004 BTC ($12) for withdrawing cryptocurrencies from its custodial wallet. The withdrawal fees for USDT and TON are 2 USDT and 0.05 TON, respectively.