How Telegram Gifts Brought the NFT Market Back to Life

14 May, 2025

By mid-2024 daily NFT sales on major marketplaces had dropped more than 80 percent from their 2021 highs. Profile-picture collections lost their novelty, “metaverse land” stopped selling, and analysts wrote the sector off as another post-ICO fad.

What Telegram Did Differently

Collectible Gifts (January 2025). Any animated gift in Telegram can be upgraded to a unique digital item with one tap. All actions happen inside the app; minting on the TON blockchain is optional, not mandatory.
Paying with Stars. The in-app currency is topped up through normal app-store payments. For casual users it feels like reward points; for power users it’s a bridge to on-chain assets.
Gift Marketplace (May 2025). A secondary market built into the client lets you set a price in Stars and sell a gift without external wallets.
Social Utility. A gift can be worn as a status icon or pinned to a profile, turning ownership into a visible badge.

The Numbers After Launch

More than 20 million gifts minted in the first four months, with turnover exceeding 35 million USD in Stars and TON.
TON moved into the global top three networks for NFT transactions and led the field by active traders in May 2025.
Rare gifts appreciated 20–40×; average prices in some collections climbed from 2 TON to 70 TON.

Why It Worked

Telegram stripped away the pain points that had stalled the previous NFT wave:

no wallets or seed phrases—just a single “Make Collectible” button;
near-zero fees and sub-five-second confirmations in TON;
a familiar “digital souvenir” format that speaks to mainstream users;
seamless trading inside the same chat interface where people already spend their time.

Ripple Effects

Mobile-first design is becoming the norm as TON marketplaces release mini-apps inside Telegram. Brands and media outlets now drop digital merch as gifts, while game bots hand out skins in gift form without ever saying “NFT.”

What’s Next

Telegram is testing burn-to-upgrade mechanics—combine several common gifts to obtain a rare one. TON developers are preparing animated, upgradable profile badges. The “gift-as-NFT” format is on track to become a universal model for digital items in messengers and games.

Takeaway

NFTs didn’t revive because of headline-grabbing art auctions; they returned because the process became effortless: buy, send, sell—all in one window, no crypto jargon required. By removing technical and psychological barriers, Telegram turned NFTs from a speculative niche into an everyday social tool and rebooted the market in the process.