Telegram Applies for .gram Domain to Give Users Subdomains, Not Independent Addresses

As reported by ICANN, .gram now competes in a crowded field of more than 1,600 primary applications in the 2026 round, with 1,100 additional requests for backup strings. ICANN will publish the list of cleared strings by mid-October, followed by evaluation, contention resolution, and contracting stages that can take months. The company is set to release its list of applicants, referred to by the industry as 'Reveal Day', and it will be done no later than within nine weeks from the end of the window, meaning somewhere in late October 2026. Durov cannot set a specific launch date as ICANN controls the schedule, making a working .gram address unlikely before 2027. ICANN records also suggest Link Freedom Group may be pursuing .gram, adding another competitor to the application process, with the company having listed it among more than 300 primary and replacement strings in its applications.

According to recent reports, if Telegram controls .gram as a registry operator, every username.gram address would be a Telegram-managed subdomain, not an independently owned web property that users could transfer, protect through a third-party registrar, or keep if they left the platform. The distinction matters most to the billion-plus people who would be handed these addresses. A traditional domain you register through GoDaddy or Namecheap is your property: you can transfer it, renew it with any accredited registrar, and keep it independent of any single platform. A subdomain under a brand TLD is more like your Gmail address — functional and free, but owned by the platform and revocable on its terms. Under this model, Telegram as .gram registry operator would create durov.gram by adding a DNS zone record to the .gram zone file, pointing it at nameservers Telegram controls. The DNS resolution chain would work like this: a browser queries the root nameservers; gets the .gram authoritative nameservers (operated by Telegram or its contracted registry service provider); queries those; gets the nameservers for durov.gram specifically; queries those; and gets the IP address of the website. Telegram controls every step from the .gram level, making the addresses tied to the platform identity, not to the user as an independent registrant.

According to ICANN and X, the proposed system would allow Telegram username holders to claim yourname.gram addresses, then publish interactive sites hosted by Telegram. The plan extends Telegram's TON blockchain push from payments into web publishing, with Telegram running hosting operations to keep users within the app's ecosystem. Durov stated that the company also plans to allow users to create interactive websites using those domain names by providing a simple natural language instruction without any technical configurations. Under the proposed structure, .gram would serve as the top-level domain while users could register second-level names, such as alice.gram. The vision described by people familiar with Telegram's plans — users launching websites by typing a natural-language AI prompt inside Telegram — aligns with infrastructure Telegram has been building. The platform's xAI partnership with Elon Musk's company, which agreed to pay Telegram $300 million in cash and equity to integrate the Grok AI model into Telegram apps, established the AI layer. Separately, Telegram Desktop updates released in August 2026 added custom AI prompt tabs to the article editor — a feature that lets users generate structured content within Telegram's native publishing tool. Unstoppable Domains will serve as Telegram's registry service provider if the application is successful.

This development comes after Telegram's t.me short link services experienced a difficult period in July when their services were down for almost one day as a result of the registrar holding the .me domain. Owning its own top-level domain would give Telegram direct control over its web infrastructure rather than depending on a third-party registry, reducing the risk of another outage. The application represents a strategic move to extend Telegram identities beyond the app itself, positioning the .gram domain approval as a potential breakthrough that would provide every user with a personal corner of the web built from a single prompt. The July 13, 2026 t.me outage that lasted approximately 19 hours due to OFAC sanctions listing a t.me URL as the contact address for a cybercriminal VPN service crystallized the cost of third-party registry dependency. Durov learned about the outage the same way any user would: he publicly asked the .me registry on X to look into why the links had stopped working. The structural lesson delivered is that when Telegram uses t.me, it sits on infrastructure controlled by doMEn, Montenegro's registry operator — a joint venture whose partners include the US-based Identity Digital — subject to OFAC's enforcement patterns and any legal order directed at either company. Every channel link, bot URL, and TON wallet address formatted as a t.me link can be silenced by a party Telegram has no contractual authority over.

As reported by X, Gram (GRAM) token traded near $1.32, representing a 35% decline over the past 90 days despite a 0.7% daily increase. The token currently sits 84% below its record high of $8.25 from June 2024, maintaining a $3.65 billion market value and ranking 25th by size. The token's full trading range spans from $0.52 to $8.25. Traders have shown limited conviction since the domain announcement, though the ecosystem continues expanding with Telegram's native non-custodial wallet pledge and network validator operations.