The arrival of Telegram Wallet will significantly increase cyber attacks on this application, thereby seeking to take over the holdings that users may have in said wallet.
Telegram, the well-known messaging application, has recently presented a function that allows you to enjoy a cryptocurrency wallet integrated into its application. The wallet allows users to access their cryptocurrency holdings through a system with KYC and cellular identification, which is natively integrated into the application. At the moment, the wallet only allows handling three currencies: Bitcoin, TONCOIN and USDT (using the TRON network) and works in a custodial manner.
Faced with these advances, the developers of the TON Foundation and Telegram have not kept the community waiting by making public their partnership in this project. A fact that marks the return of Telegram to the cryptocurrency sector, after the events that the company faced against the SEC of the United States in 2019. Thus, Telegram and the TON Foundation made it clear that, with this development, they seek to achieve the following objectives:
- The @wallet integration will provide a portal for approximately 800 million Telegram users worldwide, excluding the US. This expansive feature will be fully rolled out starting in November, and will be final for the Telegram Wallet rollout.
- Telegram has committed to granting TON projects and its associated partners privileged access to its advertising platform as part of the partnership. This seeks to boost Telegram Wallet's reach in the community.
- Ambitiously, TON has set a goal to have 30% of Telegram's user base by 2028 using Telegram Wallet.
The cybersecurity nightmare begins
However, with the announcement of Telegram and TON Foundation, several voices have been raised regarding the issue of insecurity of the application. One of those voices has been that of CertiK, who from your X account (formerly Twitter), have raised the alarm with an analysis carried out on the bot ecosystem that currently exists on Telegram and that could affect Telegram Wallet:
Beware of the hype train! 🚆🛑
Our analysis shows that more than 40% of Telegram Bot tokens could be exit scams…
Introducing Telegram Bot tokens on our new byte-sized blockchain 👇 pic.twitter.com/Rf4VNqhWeJ
– CertiK (@CertiK) September 13, 2023
According to the firm's analysis, 40% of Telegram bot tokens could be involved in rug-pull scams. A fact that should put Telegram users on notice about the dangers they will face in said ecosystem, along with their little or almost no control by Telegram.
CertiK indicates that these trading bots, which operate on decentralized exchanges and execute operations based on predefined rules, have experienced a meteoric rise in popularity, and they fear that now with the arrival of wallets, they will not only continue that trend, but will multiply the risk in the Telegram Wallet ecosystem.
Telegram Wallet and the risks to come
Telegram is well known for being one of the favorite platforms when it comes to creating communities around crypto projects. Their groups and bots are, in essence, the tools that facilitate the generation of these living and participatory communities. However, it is also known that many bots reach these spaces in order to capture unwary people and scam them. Faced with this situation, positions such as those of CertiK seek to keep users alert about the potential and existing dangers in this application, especially with the Telegram Wallet functionality. A reality that becomes more relevant now, since cybercriminals will be especially motivated to attack this application due to the arrival of the wallet.
An example of the type of future dangers that may arise in Telegram Wallet is what has happened with the $BALD token. Launched on the Base sidechain, the creator of this $BALD token took advantage of market manipulation strategies to reach a valuation of more than 100 million dollars in a few days, and then disappear with all that money. The same risks can arise now and, even more in the future, with these new functions added to Telegram, so you must be more attentive than ever to the cyber threats that will come to this application, and not fall into the FOMO that may be generated in said ecosystem.
After all, Telegram is designed to be a messaging app. This entails a very different interactive flow than what, for example, you see in a dedicated cryptocurrency wallet. Thus, it might be enough to receive a link from an account or group that has been hacked (something that, for example, happened recently with $PEPE) so that you are a potential victim of these security threats, and for this reason, you should be more attentive than ever to what happens and with what interactions with your Telegram account.
Continue reading: Microsoft warns about attack aimed at startups and cryptocurrency users on Telegram
