The $500K Username That Raises Awkward Questions

A transaction on the TON blockchain has recorded the purchase of an NFT representing the Telegram username "boss" for 500,000 USDT. It raises two completely separate questions.

First, back in 2022 this same username was bought by its previous owner for 40,000 Toncoin. At the time, it seemed like Toncoin might become a universal payment currency within the Telegram ecosystem. Many other cryptocurrencies - even Bitcoin itself - were originally envisioned as payment tools. But today that role has largely been taken over by stablecoins, especially USDT.

And here we are: even for buying an NFT on TON, Toncoin is barely needed. So what is it actually for? Just paying gas fees? In this case, the transaction cost was only about 0.25 TON. Which makes holding large amounts of Toncoin feel increasingly pointless. Maybe it is time to swap TON for stablecoins instead. If you are thinking about it, you can do it at the best rates on rabbit.io.

Second, the object of this deal itself is rather strange. Telegram does not guarantee that any user will permanently retain their chosen username. In fact, the platform has already carried out a mass withdrawal of usernames in the past - precisely to sell them initially for Toncoin.

Even if such large-scale actions do not happen again, there is still a straightforward way for a username to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Under Telegram's rules, anyone can claim a username if it is part of their established online identity. Verification is simple: if the claimant uses the same username on two out of three platforms - Facebook, Instagram, or X - Telegram may reassign it to them.

I have personally lost a username this way. It was not tied to any NFT, though. But what if it had been? What if that username were backed by a half-a-million-dollar NFT on the TON blockchain? Would it still be reassigned to someone who happened to register the same handle across a couple of social networks?