Telegram has one billion active users and as of last month every single one of them now has access to a crypto wallet built directly into the app. Wallet in Telegram just rebranded as Walt, positioning itself as the advanced platform sitting alongside it. Joining me is Alex Kruglov, CCO and Partner at Walt. Alex, welcome to Capital Markets Wall Street to Mena. Telegram has a billion users — what does that scale actually do for crypto adoption that nothing else has managed?
That is quite a unique opportunity for all of us in the crypto space. Telegram is the only platform that has both the capability and the intent to bring crypto to true mass adoption at a scale that no other company can probably manage. A lot of people have tried to bring crypto to real mass adoption but nobody managed — because it is really hard to explain how it works, what blockchain is, the difference between custody and self-custody. With Telegram’s distribution, you can remove a lot of friction from the onboarding process. That is a massive way of getting into the pockets of hundreds of millions of real users, up to Telegram’s billion user base.
You rebranded from Wallet to Walt. What prompted that change?
There were two reasons. First, we have outgrown the category of wallet for a long time. We started five years ago as a very simple tool for basically storing Toncoin and Bitcoin. Now we provide a range of product offerings including trading, real world assets, earning, and a lot more. The name Wallet did not reflect what we are. In parallel, Telegram is finally going all-in to the space with their own wallet — which is technically right now in an active phase of release. Probably today is the day when tens of millions of users will start getting their hands on the product. Having two products called Wallet in one application would sound a little weird. So we decided to take our own name and start the new stage of the product with it.
What is Walt now — what does the rebrand actually reflect?
We call it an all-in-one crypto application. Being a custodial product, we cover basic spot trading, in certain jurisdictions perpetual trading, six ongoing earn programmes where you can get passive income on your assets. We had a great partnership with Bake, now owned by Kraken, in delivering real world assets. And of course the basic features like sending and receiving assets between Telegram users and on-chain. We are multi-chain with around 300 assets. We try to balance wider availability of features with accessibility — intentionally not overcomplicating the product so any random person who comes in can use it and comprehend what is going on. A little more advanced than just the basic stuff Telegram is releasing with their wallet — which they are now calling Money.
How has the way people actually use crypto inside Telegram changed since you launched?
They changed a lot. First, there are many more users than before. With more people who are less deep into crypto joining, we see how real world assets complement the platform. Around 40% of new users who joined Walt recently did not start with traditional crypto assets like Bitcoin, Solana, or Gram — they are starting with tokenised gold and tokenised stocks. In their minds there is not much difference now between crypto and traditional stock markets. Three years ago, Bitcoin was one thing and a Tesla stock was completely different. Now they are basically the same thing in the consumer’s mind — just assets to hold short-term or long-term.
Thank you so much for being here with us today.
