Suspension of Telegram's 't.me' Domain Affects Access to TON Wallet and Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

The "t.me" domain of the URL shortening service provided by Telegram has suddenly been suspended at the registry level.

On July 13, 2026 (Monday), the "t.me" domain was abruptly suspended at the registry (domain management operator) level. This led to a situation where millions of shortened URLs on the internet temporarily became non-functional. Although this outage did not affect Telegram's messaging system itself, it was triggered by the domain's status being set to serverHold.

According to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) regulations, when this status is applied, the DNS records of the affected domain are completely removed from the internet. As a result, even if the infrastructure is operational, name resolution becomes impossible, blocking access to all websites and related services that depend on the domain.

Major Gateway to the TON Ecosystem Blocked, Affecting NFTs and Mini-Apps

The suspension of this domain has not only severed messaging links but has also dealt a serious blow to cryptocurrency services based on The Open Network (TON), a layer 1 blockchain.

The t.me domain functioned as the de facto main gateway to the on-chain ecosystem within Telegram. Typically, users would activate custodial wallets via "t.me/wallet" to buy, sell, and transfer assets such as Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), and the native token Gram (GRAM). With the domain going offline, this critical access point has been lost.

Furthermore, the impact extends beyond wallets, affecting transactions of Telegram usernames and phone numbers tokenized as TON-based digital assets, NFT (non-fungible token) gifts from Telegram, and various mini-apps that connect to the blockchain using TON Connect, all of which relied on the functionality of the shortened domain.

Concerns Over Compliance Violations and Absence of Official Statements

This measure has been reported to be taken by Identity Digital, a U.S. technology company responsible for the technical operation of Montenegro's country code top-level domain (.me).

Some social media and sources have pointed out that the application of this serverHold status may be related to compliance requirements from OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. However, no official reasons have been announced by either Identity Digital or Telegram at this time.

Generally, registries take such measures due to unpaid fees, authentication issues, misuse, or security concerns, but the true reasons remain unclear. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has also avoided direct mention of this issue, although he recently criticized the EU's proposal to scan private communications.

Telegram Shifts to Alternative Domain "telegram.me", Attention on Future Developments

In response to the outage, Telegram has switched the in-app redirect to the "telegram.me" domain, implementing emergency measures to maintain new link functionality while t.me is offline.

Various speculations have circulated online regarding domain expiration and political pressure, but no objective evidence has been found to support these claims. The future focus will be on whether the .me registry will lift the hold or disclose clear reasons for sanctions. Additionally, it remains to be seen whether Telegram will take further steps to operate additional alternative domains to fully restore the convenience of the entire ecosystem.