Telegram\'s financial report announced: The main income turned out to be selling coins!

While the outside world still regards Telegram as a \"dark version of WeChat\", its financial report has poured cold water on the market. According to unaudited data disclosed by the Financial Times, Telegram achieved revenue of US$870 million in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 65%. However, the most eye-catching thing is not advertising or subscriptions, but \"selling coins\" has become the main source of revenue. Against the background of increasing TON ecosystem activity and increasing transaction volume on the chain, Telegram is directly transforming its traffic advantages into the ability to monetize crypto assets. This financial report not only reveals the business model shift of a social platform, but also once again confirms that the crypto market is deeply embedded in the revenue structure of mainstream Internet companies.

From the perspective of \"pulling revenue\", this is a quite beautiful growth curve.

But the problem lies on the profit side. Telegram reported a net loss of more than US$220 million in the first half of 2025, compared with a net profit of US$334 million in the same period last year.

The loss did not come from the collapse of its main business, but from the sharp decline in Toncoin(TON) held by it in 2025, and the company wrote down the book of related assets.

PART01, Telegram Development History

Telegram was established in 2013 and is one of the most important instant messaging platforms in the world.

As of 2025, Telegram has more than 900 million monthly active users, covering Europe, the Middle East, South America and emerging markets. It is one of the fastest-growing social applications in the world.

For crypto users, Telegram has become the de facto \"public discussion level\" in the crypto industry: a large number of exchange announcements, project governance, airdrop information, OTC transactions and on-chain communities all use Telegram as the core position.

This makes it have the dual attributes of social platform + financial information infrastructure at the same time.

PART02, IPO plans are stranded

Although Telegram announced that it is preparing for an IPO, the real obstacle is that its founder Pavel Durov is still under investigation in France (sudden! Tg founder was arrested, TON prices plunged).

Telegram has made it clear that it will not advance the listing until relevant compliance issues are clearer.

Fortunately, Telegram does not lack capital support. In May 2025, the company completed US$1.7 billion in convertible bond financing, backed by top institutions such as BlackRock and Mubadala.

The relationship between PART03, Telegram and TON

The relationship between Telegram and TON is also complex.

In 2017, Telegram launched the blockchain project TON(Telegram Open Network), hoping to embed payment systems into chat applications and raised approximately US$1.7 billion in 2018. However, in 2019, when the SEC determined that it was suspected of issuing unregistered securities, it was forced to suspend it. Telegram settled with regulators and withdrew from the project in 2020.

TON was then reborn as a community public chain, and Telegram was rebound in an \"unofficial but deeply connected\" way, and will shine in 2024.

Unfortunately, after founder Durov was arrested in 2024, the momentum of rapid progress came to an abrupt end (the TON chain collapsed? It has not been out of the new district for a long time).

There are only a few TON ecological projects that exploded at the beginning, and the currency price has generally retreated by more than 70%:

However, judging from the latest financial reports, the relationship between Telegram and TON has long exceeded the scope of \"official support for a certain public chain.\"

TON-related revenue accounts for a significant proportion.

Financial reports show that about one-third of Telegram\'s revenue (about US$300 million) comes from TON-related exclusive agreements, including wallet entrances, payment functions, ecological integration, etc.

At the same time, Telegram is also one of the most important sources of circulation for TON. Since 2025, it has sold more than US$450 million in TON, accounting for about 10% of the current market value of TON.

This means that selling coins is Telegram\'s main business, and at the same time, the bookmaker with the biggest hit on TON is Telegram!