MoonPay adds Telegram access for its AI crypto assistant

MoonPay has brought its MoonAgents AI crypto assistant to Telegram, giving users a mobile-friendly way to ask for market analysis, dashboards and transaction setup. For everyday crypto users, the move matters because it puts an agent tied to wallet activity inside a messaging app many already keep open.

The company announced the Telegram integration Thursday. MoonAgents is MoonPay’s assistant for crypto tasks, and an AI agent means software that can respond to instructions and take steps across apps or services, rather than only answer questions in a chat window.

Kevin Arifin, MoonPay’s product lead for Agents, told Decrypt that the Telegram feature extends the MoonAgents desktop app for moments when users are away from their computers. He said the desktop version stays linked to a user’s machine, while Telegram gives people a way to reach the assistant on the go.

According to Arifin, the setup uses Telegram as the front-end chat layer. Users create their own bot through BotFather, Telegram’s tool for making bots, connect that bot to the MoonAgents desktop app, and then interact with the agent through normal messages.

MoonPay says users can ask MoonAgents to review markets, build dashboards, prepare crypto transactions and watch blockchain activity. Preparing a transaction means setting up the details before it is sent, such as what action a user wants to take, rather than the user manually building every step from scratch.

The company also says Telegram is an interface, while user data and private keys remain on the user’s computer. Private keys are the credentials that control access to crypto assets, so where they are stored is a central security issue for wallet-connected tools.

Arifin told Decrypt that Telegram was not chosen only because crypto communities often use it. He said Telegram offers a cleaner process for creating bots, while similar integrations with services such as WhatsApp or iMessage require more setup.

MoonAgents follows a broader push to connect AI systems with crypto services. Arifin cited projects including OpenClaw and Hermes Agent as examples that shaped MoonPay’s thinking about assistants that work beyond standard chatbot interfaces. He also said OpenClaw changed expectations for large language models, or AI systems trained to understand and generate text, when those models can access a user’s computer.

The Telegram integration is designed to avoid making the messaging app a single point of dependence, according to Arifin. He told Decrypt that conversations are saved on the user’s computer, so users could continue through the MoonAgents desktop app even if Telegram access were no longer available.

MoonPay has been expanding MoonAgents beyond a standalone assistant. Decrypt reported that the desktop app was built to connect Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex to crypto wallets, token swaps, prediction markets and other blockchain tools through a visual interface. Decrypt disclosed that MoonPay Ventures is an investor in Dastan, its parent company.

Other crypto firms are working on similar agent infrastructure. Decrypt reported that Gemini launched Agentic Trading in April, allowing users to connect AI models including ChatGPT and Claude to execute trading strategies through the exchange’s tools. Coinbase launched Coinbase for Agents in June, a tool Decrypt said lets AI agents trade crypto, make payments and manage portfolios within user-defined limits.

This story draws on original reporting from Decrypt.