Telegram's t.me Domain Dropped from Global DNS
Founder Durov learned about the outage via social media.
1Critical Infrastructure Outage
Telegram's t.me shortlink domain was placed on 'server hold' by Montenegro's .me registry, removing it from global DNS. All t.me links worldwide became inaccessible. The domain being registered until 2035 rules out a simple expiration issue, pointing to a registry-level suspension.
2Durov's Surprised Response
Telegram founder Pavel Durov publicly acknowledged the outage on social media, stating the company received no prior notice. His post calling out the registry highlights unusual communication breakdowns for a platform with ~1B monthly users. The lack of transparency raises operational concerns.
3Montenegro Connection
The .me domain extension, Montenegro's country-code TLD, has been globally marketed since 2008. Operated by doMEn with partners like GoDaddy, its early partnership with Telegram made t.me the platform's primary link infrastructure. Billions of t.me links exist across the web from this integration.
4Timing Amid Legal Pressures
The DNS suspension coincides with Durov's ongoing legal challenges in France, where he was recently questioned for the fourth time. No proven connection exists between the legal probe and domain action yet. Potential causes range from administrative errors to regulatory orders or policy disputes.
5Blow to Crypto Ecosystem
As crypto's de facto communication hub, Telegram hosts countless projects, exchanges, and traders who rely exclusively on t.me links. The outage disabled all invite links and channel URLs globally. This disrupts operations as Telegram expands financial services including tokenized stocks via its crypto wallet.
6Exposes Infrastructure Fragility
The incident reveals Telegram's surprising centralization around a single domain, despite decentralization claims. With financial ambitions growing, such outages carry multiplied consequences. Registry explanations and restoration timelines will significantly impact platform reliability perceptions moving forward.
Original article: Bitcoin News — Telegram'ın t.me Alan Adı Küresel DNS'ten Kaldırıldı