According to an announcement from the wallet provider on September 25th, the wallet on Telegram will be temporarily restricted for users in the United Kingdom, with the wallet on Telegram joining the open platform and being available once the entity registers as a corporate asset provider.
The popular third-party service said it has decided to register as a crypto asset provider under current Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations and will disable the in-app wallet features for UK residents until the company behind the app Wallet obtains the appropriate regulatory license.
Additionally, Telegram Wallet users in the UK will be able to withdraw funds fee-free to external wallets during this period and receive updates on their accounts.
The wallet on Telegram is not operated by Telegram. Its application to the FCA is a separate decision by a separate organization and is not related to the case involving Pavel Durov and other Telegram policy changes.
Major changes to Telegram policies and features
As part of policy changes following the arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram recently announced that it would begin sharing user data with authorities in the event of a “valid legal request” made by authorities.
This user data includes phone numbers and IP addresses, which has raised concerns among privacy and anti-censorship advocates due to the potential for abuse by state actors.
At the time the policy change was announced, Durov defended the decision, arguing that it would protect the platform’s users from criminal activity. In a message to the Telegram community, Durov wrote:
“These measures should discourage criminals. Telegram Search is intended to find friends and discover news, not to promote illegal goods. We will not allow bad actors to compromise the integrity of our platform for nearly a billion users.
In September 2024, Durov also announced that Telegram would disable the personal geolocation feature in the app and replace it with a “Business Nearby” option.
Simultaneously, Telegram discontinued support for the platform’s “Telegraph” blogging tool, citing abuse by some bad actors who used the platform to disseminate illegal content. Durov clarified that the majority of Telegram users have never used the blogging feature to post harmful content.
However, Telegram’s founder said the “0.001%” of individuals using the platform to transmit illegal content pose a disproportionate risk to the broader law-abiding community.
