Telegram's global infrastructure has faced an unprecedented incident. Short links in the t.me format have stopped opening in browsers worldwide. Meanwhile, the app itself, as well as the backup domains telegram.me and telegram.org, are functioning normally. The issue has exclusively affected web redirects via short links, indicating a targeted external intervention.
Technical Nature of the Incident
The cause of the outage lies not in Telegram's infrastructure, but at the domain registry level. The t.me domain has received the serverHold status in the .me zone registry. This action has completely removed the domain from global DNS resolution, and any request to it now returns an NXDOMAIN error. It is important to understand: the serverHold status is applied exclusively at the registry level (in this case, Identity Digital) and takes precedence over any settings of the registrar or DNS provider. WHOIS data confirms that the domain now carries eight status flags, including serverHold, clientDeleteProhibited, and serverDeleteProhibited, with an update date of July 13, 2026.
Why This Is Critical for TON and the Crypto Market
The scale of the potential risk extends far beyond a single messenger. The .me registry also serves short links for PayPal, WordPress, and Meta's family of apps. But for the crypto community, the situation is particularly sensitive. Through t.me/wallet, over a billion users access Telegram's custodial wallet, allowing them to buy, store, and transfer assets, including USDT, Bitcoin, and Gram. The outage has cut off the primary user entry point to the Gram token ecosystem, valued at approximately $4.3 billion. This is not just a technical glitch—it is a direct threat to onboarding millions of users into DeFi.
Theories and Context
There is no official explanation. Neither Telegram, the .me registry, nor Identity Digital have issued a statement. Two main theories have emerged on social media. The first links the shutdown to a sanctions context: on July 13, OFAC published a press release adding the service First VPN Service to the sanctions list, with t.me/FirstVPNService among the addresses listed under it. The second theory ties the incident to Pavel Durov's personal situation, as French investigators interrogated him for the fourth time last week. However, no evidence linking the suspension to any specific legal proceeding has been presented.
Telegram's Response and Outlook
The platform has already begun to technically circumvent the issue: when copying links to chats, channels, or profiles, URLs in the telegram.me format are now generated. However, the backup domain is in the same .me zone and is therefore not immune to a similar action. Restoration typically requires the registrant or registrar to resolve the underlying claim from the registry before the status is lifted. According to industry practice, this process can take from several hours to several days, depending on the nature of the problem. As of publication, the status has not been lifted, and there are still no official comments.
My analysis: This incident is a wake-up call for the entire ecosystem tied to centralized domain zones. Relying on t.me as the sole gateway for crypto wallets means ignoring the fundamental risks of Web2 infrastructure. TON and Telegram urgently need to diversify entry points, possibly transitioning to decentralized naming systems (DNS alternatives), so that such outages do not paralyze access to assets for millions of users.