Warning of Blockchain Association: Telegram wallet has blocked the assets of some Iranian users; What is Telegram’s answer?
The Iranian Blockchain Association has recently warned about the cases of blocking of assets of Iranian users in the wallet associated with Telegram. The support of this wallet also confirmed in response to Aruzdigital’s question that this tool cannot be used by Iranian users.
The Blockchain Association of Iran has recently issued a notice about the risk of blocking the assets of Iranian users in the secure wallet associated with the Telegram messenger, which is known as @wallet.
In the text of the announcement of the Iranian Blockchain Association, it is stated that examples of Iranian users’ assets being blocked in the Telegram wallet have been reported recently. According to the blockchain community, this blocking occurred for several digital currencies under the cover of the Telegram wallet and was not limited to Ton Coin (TON).
As can be seen from the image above, the Telegram wallet, after checking a transaction containing some Tether, has informed the Iranian user that this transaction is not approved by them in terms of security and therefore cannot add it to the user’s account. Then the user is asked to enter another address to receive Tether, so that if the address is verified in terms of security, the amount will be returned to the new address. It can be seen in the last message that Telegram wallet robot support has informed the user that the services related to this wallet are not provided to Iranian citizens and that this person is only able to withdraw his assets.
In order to independently investigate this issue, Erzdigital has sent a message to the support of the Telegram wallet robot and asked whether or not users living in Iran are allowed to use this wallet. In response to this question, the support of the Telegram wallet said that “unfortunately, the wallet is not available for users residing in Iran”.
Telegram wallet support has given this answer while all the accounts created in Telegram with Iranian phone numbers have access to this tool and can even use its services; That is, there is currently no limit for making wallets by accounts related to Iranian numbers. As it can be seen, in the blocked samples, the direct and unmediated deposit of assets from Iranian exchanges to this wallet has probably occurred and therefore the transfer has not been confirmed.
Telegram wallet support has also confirmed in response to AruzDigital that if a transaction related to Iran is blocked, it will still be possible for the user to withdraw assets. Additionally, as shown in the images in the blockchain community announcement, if a transaction related to Iran is detected, it is likely to be unverified and the user will be asked to provide an address to withdraw their assets. Of course, the withdrawal of assets in this situation is conditional on the fact that the new address also fulfills the security conditions of the Telegram wallet.
In general, as stated in the announcement of the Iranian Blockchain Association, the direct transfer of digital assets from domestic exchanges to international platforms, including the Telegram wallet, is associated with serious risks, and there is always the risk of asset blocking or user transaction reversal; Especially considering that the @wallet bot is a trust wallet and the user does not have custody of their assets.