Anonymous Telegram Numbers
Anonymous Telegram numbers are phone numbers on TON blockchain. They are in the form of NFTs and are not linked to physical SIM cards. They can be purchased for cryptocurrency on the Fragment, TON Diamonds, Getgems blockchain platforms and used to create anonymous Telegram accounts.
Features of Telegram numbers
- Not linked to the user's personal information, ensuring anonymity
- Stored on a blockchain, which guarantees immutability and protection from hacking
- Used exclusively for registration and authentication in Telegram
- A total of 136,566 numbers have been issued, no further issues are planned yet
- The legal status of anonymous numbers in some countries is uncertain
Comparison with regular numbers
| — | Anonymous Telegram Number | Regular Number |
| Anonymity | Yes | No |
| Cost | Paid | Free |
| Availability | Limited | High |
| Privacy | High | Low |
History
December 7, 2022 — Telegram officially introduced the anonymous numbers feature based on TON blockchain, at which time it was possible to purchase a random number for a price of 9 TON. On the same day, an update to Telegram was released, which introduced the ability to register with the messenger using an anonymous number.
December 9, 2022 — 2 days after the launch, a notice appeared on the Fragment website that starting from December 13, the price for a number will increase by 1 TON every 3 hours until it reaches 99 TON. After that, all numbers that have not been purchased will be removed from the site and will become unavailable for purchase.
On January 1, 2023, the last primary auction for the number +888 0133 1333 ended. This was the last number purchased from Telegram. All other sales took place between users — the development of the secondary market of anonymous numbers started from this point.
December 2022 / January 2023 — the first lots were offered at Fragment auctions, the number +888888888 was bought for a record 300,000 TON.
January / August 2023 — the price for the anonymous number updated its historical high (around 376 TON). At the time of writing, the bottom price of the collection is ~115 TON.
September 14, 2023 — Pavel Durov, in his Telegram feed, mentioned the 27-fold increase in the cost of anonymous numbers in 9 months in the context of Telegram's web3 development.
November 28, 2023 — at the annual TON conference «The GateWay», representatives said that they have received complaints from regulators from many countries after releasing the numbers. So they are not making new features or releasing new numbers yet.
December 2, 2023 — simultaneously on the Fragment website and in the messenger itself, the first update for anonymous numbers was released. Owners now have the ability to disable the sending of the code required to log in to the account on the site.
Market pricing
The numbers are traded both at a fixed price and at auctions of famous sites — Fragment, TON Diamonds, Getgems. The collection is one of the most traded and is among the TOP 3. At the time of writing, the cost of one issue on the Fragment platform in the fixed price mode varies from 117 TON and can reach several tens or hundreds of thousands of TON. In auction mode, prices start from 5 TON and depend on users' bids.
On the TON Diamonds and Getgems platforms, the prices are identical. Here are some examples from the platforms:
Users can rent or lease anonymous numbers through the Major app. By staking an anonymous number, the owner earns rewards in $MAJOR tokens.