All terms
The messaging app most crypto project communities run on. Also where most scams reach you.
Telegram, shortened to TG, is where most token communities live. Groups are open, unmoderated by default, and can hold hundreds of thousands of members. Announcements, price talk, raids and most of a project's day to day noise happen there.
It is also the single most common channel for crypto theft. Anyone can create an account with any display name and photo, join a group, read who is asking for help, and message them privately pretending to be support or a moderator. Real admins in real projects almost never message first.
Set your privacy so only contacts can add you to groups and message you, treat every unsolicited direct message as hostile, and remember that nobody legitimate will ever need your seed phrase or ask you to connect a wallet to fix an issue.
A user posts a question in a project group and receives three private messages within a minute, all claiming to be support.
That a group with thousands of members is a real community. Members are cheap to buy, activity is easy to fake, and unsolicited direct messages from a group you joined are the single most common route a scam takes. Nobody official will message you first.
Common questions
Why do so many projects use Telegram?
How do I stay safe in a project’s Telegram?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More culture terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.