Telegram short domain t.me links were disabled by the registrant! Founder Pavel Durov was also caught off guard

Telegram’s short-link domain t.me was marked by the .me domain registrar as being in a serverHold state on July 13 and was directly removed from global DNS, causing all web-version links beginning with t.me to stop working overnight. However, links inside the Telegram application (App) and the telegram.me address are not affected and can still function normally, indicating the problem is with the t.me registration itself rather than Telegram’s overall infrastructure. Founder Pavel Durov also appears to have learned about it only in real time on X, publicly tagging the registrar to request help; as of now, the three parties have yet to provide an official explanation.
(Background: Toncoin announces it will rename the token back to “$Gram”! Pavel Durov: The 4th step to make TON great again)
(Background addition: Let AI communicate on its own! Telegram opens “Bot-to-Bot” bot-to-bot conversations)

Key summary

• t.me was marked serverHold by the .me registrar on 7/13, removed from global DNS, and all web-version links became invalid
• Links inside the Telegram App and the telegram.me address are not affected and still work normally
• Founder Pavel Durov seemingly learned about it in real time and publicly asked for help; to date, the three parties have not provided an official explanation

The messaging app Telegram relies on the short-link domain t.me to share channels and groups. On July 13, it suddenly went fully offline. The reason is that the .me domain registrar marked t.me as being in a serverHold state, directly removing it from global DNS; all web-version links starting with t.me then became inaccessible overnight.

However, the Telegram application (App) itself continues to operate as normal, and another telegram.me address is also unaffected and can still be opened normally. Since telegram.me and t.me are both in the .me domain space and use the same registrar, yet only t.me had issues, it shows this is not a blanket block of Telegram, but instead a problem specifically with the t.me registration itself.

Even Pavel Durov seems to have only found out in real time

The most awkward part is that Telegram apparently received no notice in advance at all. Founder and CEO Pavel Durov directly tagged the registrar on X: “Hey, t.me links don’t work—can you help take a look?” The tone makes it sound like he only realized it at the same time as everyone else. As of now, Telegram, the .me registrar, and Identity Digital—the U.S. company responsible for the underlying technology—have not provided an official explanation from any side.

As for why it was placed under serverHold, there are various possibilities, including legal disputes, regulatory compliance requirements, registrar policies, and even a simple technical error. One story circulating among the community is that it is related to compliance requirements from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control), but this has not been confirmed by any party and remains rumor.

Crypto users fear the TON entry point is being cut off

For the crypto community, this is not just a matter of links failing. For years, t.me has been the standard entry point for invitation links to countless crypto project channels and groups, as well as for customer support—and it also serves as an important on-ramp for Telegram’s own TON ecosystem. When the link is cut off, it effectively closes one of the doors leading to TON—for the moment.

Frequently asked questions

Why did all t.me links suddenly stop working?

On July 13, the t.me domain was marked serverHold by the .me domain registrar. This is an action at the registrar level that results in the domain being removed from global DNS. No matter how Telegram’s own servers are configured, all t.me links will fail to resolve and cannot be opened.

Can the Telegram App still be used normally?

Yes. This outage only affects the web version of the t.me short links, such as channel invitation links, group links, and personal profile links. The Telegram App itself and the telegram.me address are not affected and still operate normally.