A massive outage of Telegram's t.me short link format has been recorded worldwide. The app and alternative domains (telegram.me, telegram.org) are functioning normally, but web redirects via shortened links are completely blocked. This is not a bug in the messenger's code — it is a decision at the level of the global internet infrastructure.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov himself has publicly appealed to the administration of the .me domain zone to look into the situation. However, it appears that neither Telegram nor its owners received prior notice of the block.

Technical Background: serverHold and Global Block

The cause of the incident is not on Telegram's servers. The domain t.me has received the status serverHold in the .me zone registry. This EPP code, which can only be set by the domain zone administrator (in this case, Identity Digital), completely removes the domain from the DNS system. This means any request to t.me now returns an NXDOMAIN error — the internet reports that the address does not exist. The block is global, regardless of registrar or provider settings.

WHOIS data confirms: the domain now has eight status flags, including serverHold, clientDeleteProhibited, and serverDeleteProhibited. The last record update date is July 13, 2026, which coincides with the moment the links were disabled. The registrar is GoDaddy.com, and the name servers still point to Google's cloud infrastructure. This rules out the version of non-payment for renewal: the domain is registered until 2035.

It is important to understand: the .me registry serves not only Telegram. Short links for PayPal, WordPress, and even the Meta family of apps (including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram) are also at risk. The scale of the potential threat is much broader than just one messenger.

Versions and Context: Sanctions or Legal Pressure?

There are no official statements from Telegram, the .me registry, or Identity Digital yet. serverHold is a tool for registry-level actions: fraud investigations, security issues, legal disputes, or abuse flags.

Two main versions are circulating on social media, neither of which has been confirmed:

  • Sanctions version: The outage is linked to actions by OFAC (the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control). On July 13, OFAC published a press release adding the service First VPN Service to the sanctions list. Among the addresses listed under it is t.me/FirstVPNService. There is no direct connection between this and the blocking of the t.me domain, but the coincidence of dates is notable.
  • Legal version: The suspension coincided with a period of pressure on Pavel Durov. Last week, French investigators interrogated him for the fourth time as part of a case related to his arrest in August 2024. No evidence linking the block to a specific legal proceeding has been presented.

Telegram's Response and Consequences for TON

The platform has already begun to technically circumvent the problem. When copying links to chats, channels, and profiles, URLs of the telegram.me format are now generated instead of t.me. However, it is worth noting that telegram.me is in the same .me zone, and it is not guaranteed to be protected from similar actions.

For the crypto market, this outage has proven particularly sensitive. Through t.me/wallet, users launch the Telegram custodial wallet, allowing them to buy, store, and transfer assets (USDT, Bitcoin, Gram). The block cut off the primary user entry point to the TON ecosystem, which has a market cap of around $4.3 billion. Blockchain mini-apps, collectible usernames — all of this came under threat.

My analysis: This incident demonstrates the fundamental vulnerability of the centralized infrastructure on which even decentralized projects are built. TON, being a blockchain, depends on DNS records controlled by third parties. Until Telegram moves its key services to decentralized naming systems (e.g., TON DNS), the ecosystem will remain hostage to the decisions of registries and regulators. Recovery could take anywhere from a few hours to several days — it all depends on how quickly the underlying claim for the block is resolved.