Telegram's global short link infrastructure in the t.me format has been paralyzed. Users worldwide have encountered an inability to open these links in browsers, although the app itself, as well as the backup domains telegram.me and telegram.org, continue to operate normally. The problem is not local but systemic in nature.
Technical Anatomy of the Outage
The cause of the incident lies not in Telegram's infrastructure, but at the domain registry level. The domain t.me has received the status serverHold in the .me zone registry. This is a critical EPP status code that completely excludes the domain from the global DNS resolution system, regardless of the registrar's or DNS provider's settings. In effect, any request to this domain now returns an NXDOMAIN error, meaning the internet "does not know" that such an address exists.
WHOIS data confirms: the domain carries eight status flags, including serverHold, clientDeleteProhibited, and serverDeleteProhibited. The record update timestamp—July 13, 2026—coincides with the moment links were disabled. It is important to emphasize: the domain registration is valid until 2035, ruling out the possibility of a payment lapse. DNS servers still point to Google's cloud infrastructure, meaning delegation is not broken—the registry overrode resolution at a higher level.
Potential Causes: Sanctions or Pressure?
There are no official comments yet from either Telegram or the .me registry (managed by Identity Digital). However, two main versions are being discussed in industry circles.
The first links the block to a sanctions context. On the day of the outage, July 13, OFAC (the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control) 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 the sanctions and the registry's action yet, but the temporal coincidence raises questions.
The second version ties the incident to ongoing pressure on Telegram founder Pavel Durov. The suspension coincided in time with Durov's fourth interrogation by French investigators in a case related to his arrest in August 2024. However, evidence of a direct judicial or regulatory link has also not been presented.
Consequences for TON and the Crypto Ecosystem
The scale of the problem extends far beyond a single messenger. The t.me domain is the primary gateway for over a billion users to TON blockchain mini-apps, Telegram custodial wallets (via t.me/wallet), and collectible usernames. The outage has effectively cut off user access to the GRAM token ecosystem, which has a market capitalization of approximately $4.3 billion.
Telegram has already begun technically bypassing the issue: when copying links, URLs in the telegram.me format are now generated. However, it is worth noting that the backup domain is in the same .me zone and is not immune to similar registry action.
My Professional Commentary
This incident is a stark demonstration of the fragility of centralized DNS infrastructures for decentralized projects. The TON and Telegram ecosystem urgently needs to consider alternative addressing mechanisms, including decentralized domain names (e.g., based on the TON blockchain), to reduce dependence on third-party solutions that may be subject to political or regulatory pressure. Restoring t.me functionality may take from several hours to several days, but the strategic lesson must be learned immediately.