Since January 1, Telegram has officially allowed turning gifts into NFTs.
This means that your virtual gifts can now become full-fledged assets that can be sold, exchanged, or kept as part of a collection.

Gifts in Telegram are a controversial topic.
Some see them as a new way to make money, while others believe it’s just a clever move by Telegram to profit from transaction fees.

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So, what is it really: an opportunity or a waste of time?
Let’s figure out how it works and how much you can earn from it.

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Telegram Gifts and Their Types

What are Telegram Gifts?

Telegram gifts are virtual items that users can send to each other. The uniqueness of these gifts lies in the fact that they can be converted into NFTs.

For those unfamiliar, an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique digital asset that provides ownership rights to a specific image, in this case, on the Telegram platform.

Gifts were launched on October 5, and since then, a wide variety of themes have emerged: from lollipops and flowers to Halloween pumpkins, caps, and the famous Pepe frogs.

During the holiday season, Telegram users exchanged over 20 million gifts, making them a potential contender for the largest NFT collection.

The uniqueness of these gifts lies precisely in their ability to be turned into NFTs and sold on various marketplaces. The idea sounds simple: collect, sell, and earn.

However, the reality turned out to be more complicated. So far, the functionality is limited to sending gifts to friends and speculating on their value.

What Types of Gifts Exist?

Telegram gifts are divided into convertible and non-convertible:

Convertible gifts can be turned into NFTs and sold on marketplaces.
Non-convertible gifts are just images without NFT status. They cannot be sold or transferred — only exchanged for Stars at the purchase price minus a commission.

Each gift may have different attributes that affect its value.

Gifts are also classified by rarity:

Rare: Limited in quantity, making them more valuable for collectors.

Common: More widely available and affordable, with a lower price.

What Types of Gifts Are Available on the Market?

Currently, Telegram offers dozens of gift types that can be upgraded to NFT status, creating over 1,000 unique variations for collectors. There are 21 collections in total:

Plush Pepe
Precious Peach
Durov’s Cap
Perfume Bottle
Homemade Cake
Signet Ring
Eternal Rose
Vintage Cigar
Santa Hat
Berry Box
Magic Potion
Sharp Tongue
Trapped Heart
Skull Flower
Jelly Bunny
Scared Cat
Evil Eye
Spiced Wine
Kissed Frog
Hex Pot
Spy Agaric

Which Gifts Are in the Highest Demand?

Gifts with a limited number of copies

Plush Pepe
Durov’s Cap
Precious Peach

How Is the Value of Gifts on the Market Determined?

The value of gifts in Telegram varies depending on their rarity. The rarer the model, background, or attribute, the higher its value.

Rarity of the model: The rarer the attribute, the higher the gift’s price.
Model: The background and other attributes matter, affecting the uniqueness of the NFT.
Collection number: The lower and more desirable the number (e.g., 1, 5, 777), the higher the value.
Total supply: How many gifts were released and how many have already been converted to NFTs.

For example, a recent NFT ring with a “Skibidi Toilet” image was valued at $2000, and a ring with the Bitcoin logo set a record, selling for approximately $2250, while the average price of other rings on the market is around $50. This became the highest price for one of the cheaper gifts in Telegram’s history.

Another impressive record was set by a golden frog from the Plush Pepe collection, which sold for $4100, even though the starting price for this NFT was only $30 in its first hour.

Additionally, a user named KallenT sold an English-speaking user a gift with “golden Pepe” for about $9000. Meanwhile, he had accumulated almost 20% of all the gifts released. What he plans to do with such an impressive collection remains a mystery.

Note: All the records and amounts mentioned are accurate as of the time of writing. It’s possible that since then, new transactions have occurred that have already surpassed these results.

Almost all gifts with the available function of conversion to NFTs have shown impressive price growth since their release, with some skyrocketing to astronomical heights. However, the liquidity of many collections is already raising questions: some gifts are simply stagnating as dead weight.

Additionally, there is already a special bot that automatically updates the floor prices for gifts: FloorPriceGift.

How much does it cost to convert gifts to NFTs?

To convert gifts into NFTs, you need Telegram Stars, which are used to pay for blockchain transactions. The cost of the stars themselves depends on the Ton exchange rate, but the fixed conversion price for such gifts is 25 stars.

What are Stars in Telegram?

“Stars” are the internal currency of the messenger, used to pay for various functions and services within the platform.
They can be used to buy gifts, support content creators, and interact with mini-apps.
Buying Stars through the Fragment platform is significantly more advantageous than through app stores like the App Store or Google Play.
Moreover, through Fragment, you can easily send Stars to other users by simply specifying their username.

How to buy Telegram Stars?

Go to Fragment and log in using your Telegram account.
Connect your TON wallet to perform transactions.
Go to the “Stars” section.
Enter the recipient’s username (if you are buying stars for another user).
Choose the number of stars you want to purchase.
Click “Buy” and confirm the transaction.

How to convert a gift into an NFT?

Open your profile and go to the “Gifts” section.
Find the gift you want to convert and open it.
Next to the “Status” field, click the “Upgrade” button.
If this field is missing, it means the gift cannot be converted.

Unique gifts are created randomly: images are generated based on random values.
Price of rare gifts before conversion at the time of release.
Category: Stars/USDT

Plush Pepe: 2000 / 30
Precious Peach: 1000 / 15
Durov’s Cap: 1000 / 15
Perfume Bottle: 500 / 7.5
Homemade Cake: 500 / 7.5
Signet Ring: 150 / 2.25
Eternal Rose: 100 / 1.5
Vintage Cigar: 100 / 1.5
Santa Hat: 50 / 0.75
Berry Box: 50 / 0.75
Magic Potion: 50 / 0.75
Sharp Tongue: 50 / 0.75
Trapped Heart: 25 / 0.38
Skull Flower: 25 / 0.38
Jelly Bunny: 25 / 0.38
Scared Cat: 25 / 0.38
Evil Eye: 15 / 0.22
Spiced Wine: 15 / 0.22
Kissed Frog: 15 / 0.22
Hex Pot: 15 / 0.22
Spy Agaric: 15 / 0.22

Ways to sell gifts:

OTC Chats

Gifts that you purchased or received from friends can be transferred and sold on marketplaces or exchanged back for stars.

However, if the gift was received from bots like FrensRobot, it cannot be exchanged back for stars.

You can make a direct sale of gifts through Telegram, bypassing official platforms. For this, there are special OTC chats where users post images of their gifts and specify the desired price. In these chats, you can work with escrow services, but it’s important to be extremely cautious, as scammers are constantly coming up with new and sophisticated ways to deceive.

Tonnel Network Marketplace

This is a fully automated platform for instant gift trading, where users can easily buy or sell gifts by paying a 10% commission.

Step-by-step guide for purchasing gifts through the Tonnel Network Bot:

Send any message to the bot @giftrelayer so it can send you the purchased gift.
Go to the gift marketplace via the Tonnel Network Bot link. Here, you will see a list of gifts available for purchase.
Use the filters above the gift list to select the desired type or sort them, for example, from cheapest to most expensive. Find the gift you are interested in.
To make a purchase, top up the bot’s balance: click the plus icon at the top, specify the amount, confirm the transaction in your wallet, and wait for the funds to be credited to your account.
Return to the selected gift and click the “Buy” button. After confirmation, the gift will be automatically sent to your account.

Step-by-step guide for selling gifts through the Tonnel Network Bot:

Open the Tonnel Network Bot and connect your wallet.
Send the gift you want to sell to the GiftRelayer bot. After sending, the bot will notify you: “Santa Hat #1 has been received and now you can list it for sale.”
Return to the app, go to “My gifts” and find the gift in the “Unlisted gifts” list.
Click “List for sale”, set the price (excluding the 10% commission), and confirm.
After that, you will see the notification: “Santa Hat #1 listed for 100 TON.”
In the “Listed gifts” section, you can:

Remove the gift from sale to change the price.
Remove the gift from the list if you decide not to sell it.

7. To return the gift, your balance must be at least 0.2 TON. Click “Return gift” and confirm the action. The gift will be returned to your account.

8. After the sale, you will receive the notification: “Your gift Santa Hat #1 has been bought for 100 TON, your balance has been updated!”

To withdraw funds:

Click the minus icon.
Specify the amount or select the entire balance.
Confirm the action and wait for the funds to arrive in your wallet.

Note that a gift can be relisted for sale no more than 4 times. After this, it must be returned to your account and sent to the bot again for sale.

Instructions: How to transfer a gift to another user:

Open your profile and go to the “Gifts” section.
Find the gift you want to transfer and open it.
Next to the “Owner” field, click “Edit” and select the new recipient.

Tip: Add the recipient to your contacts list in advance to avoid mistakes.

How to Make Money with NFT Gifts

There are three main ways to earn:
• Flipping (fast flip): Buy a gift at a low price and sell it later at a higher price.
• Collecting (hold): Collect rare and in-demand gifts, waiting for their value to increase over time.

Flipping Gifts
Flipping gifts is a way to earn by finding gifts in Telegram bots or chats at prices lower than the market price, purchasing them, and reselling them at a higher price.
The choice of gifts depends on your budget.
You can flip both cheap options like “Mushrooms” and “Eyes,” as well as more valuable ones like “Pepe” or “Durov’s Caps.”
The main rule is that the purchase price should be lower than the market average.

Earning Example:
You buy a gift for $10 and sell it for $15.
By completing 5–10 such transactions a day, you could earn $50–100.
Rare NFTs can bring even higher profits.

Long-Term Investments
Long-term investments in gifts is a strategy where you buy rare items and hold them until their price rises. This approach is especially promising if Telegram starts implementing new features for NFTs.
When choosing, focus on unique models with low rarity levels, as well as NFTs with attractive numbers: one- or two-digit numbers (1–99) or nice sequences (555, 777, 1111, etc.).

For example, if you had bought a Pepe NFT for $200 on the first day of sales, you could have sold it for $2000 a week later, increasing your profit tenfold.

Staking Gifts — The Tonnel bot in Telegram provides a staking feature, allowing you to earn passive income simply by owning the gift. By buying 10–20 gifts, you can earn a good passive income daily. This works well with long-term investment since you can withdraw the gifts from staking at any time. It helps you earn profit just by holding the gifts.

Summary and Prospects

NFT gifts in Telegram are a simple and accessible way to get involved in the world of digital assets. They are easy to buy and sell using bots and apps, which makes the market attractive even for beginners. Many gifts already provide significant returns, and rare items (such as the “Skibidi Ring” or “Golden Pepe Frog”) are sold for thousands of dollars, attracting collectors and international investors.

With the introduction of Tonnel and its regular updates, as well as Telegram’s own updates, the prices of gifts are rising daily.

However, this is a bold step in the development of messenger tokenization, which could replicate the success of anonymous numbers and usernames or remain just a short-term tool for speculation.

Currently, Telegram is creating all the conditions to turn NFT gifts into a full-fledged ecosystem.

Those who get in early and follow the project’s development can expect great opportunities both for earning and for collecting.

In the future, we can expect:
• Expansion of functionality for NFT gifts.
• Increase in the collectible value of rare items.
• Active growth of market participants and new record-breaking deals.
• Integration of gifts into other areas: gamification, exclusive access, or branding.

NFTs in Telegram are a niche that is already showing significant dynamics and, with further developer support, could take a prominent place in the world of digital assets.

Useful Links:
• Bot for tracking floor prices of gifts: Floor Price Gift
• Bot for distributing gifts in chats: Frens Robot
• Automated marketplace: Tonnel Network Bot