In brief
- On Thursday, MoonPay launched support for MoonAgents on Telegram, bringing its AI crypto assistant to the messaging platform.
- Users can ask MoonAgents to analyze markets, create dashboards, and prepare transactions using natural conversations.
- MoonPay says Telegram acts as an interface, while user data and private keys remain on their computers.
MoonPay is bringing its AI crypto assistant to Telegram, letting users interact with MoonAgents through the messaging platform, the company announced on Thursday.
According to MoonPay Agents Product Lead, Kevin Arifin, the integration builds on the company’s MoonAgents desktop app by giving users access to their AI assistant when they are away from their computer.
“The desktop app is tied to your computer, but sometimes you want to make trades on the go or do analysis when you’re out for a walk,” Arifin told Decrypt in an interview. “The Telegram integration is the gateway to do that.”
Similar to OpenClaw and Hermes Agent, MoonAgents uses Telegram as an interface for users to interact with an AI agent. Arifin said users create a custom bot through BotFather, connect it to the MoonAgents desktop app, and can ask the agent to analyze markets, prepare transactions, and monitor blockchain activity. (Disclosure: MoonPay Ventures is an investor in Dastan, Decrypt’s parent company.)
While much of the cryptocurrency space utilizes Telegram to communicate, Arifin said Telegram was chosen not only because of its popularity among crypto users.
“The reason we chose Telegram as the first integration for the Moon Agents desktop app isn’t really that all of crypto uses it,” Arifin said. “They provide a really great interface for creating a new bot,” he said, noting that other messaging platforms introduce more friction, pointing to the additional setup required for similar integrations with services like WhatsApp or iMessage.
According to Arifin, AI agent projects like OpenClaw and Hermes Agent also influenced MoonAgents by showing how AI assistants can operate outside traditional chatbot interfaces.
“I think OpenClaw really redefined what the experience for LLMs could look like, especially with LLMs that can access your computer,” Arifin said.
While Telegram provides the interface, Arifin said MoonAgents was designed so users are not dependent on the messaging platform to access their agent.
“I think the greatest part about this is the focus of the Moon Agents Desktop App is everything is saved on your computer, so even if Telegram shuts down tomorrow and you can’t take your agent on the go anymore, all your conversations still exist on your computer,” Arifin said. “You can continue to have a conversation with your agent through the Moon Agent Desktop App, and essentially continue that conversation, just like Telegram never existed.”
The news comes as crypto companies continue developing infrastructure that lets AI agents interact with digital assets and online services. In April, Gemini launched Agentic Trading, which allows users to connect AI models, including ChatGPT and Claude, to execute trading strategies through the exchange’s tools.
In June, Coinbase launched Coinbase for Agents, a tool that allows AI agents to trade crypto, make payments, and manage portfolios within user-defined limits. Also in June, Nous Research released a desktop version of Hermes Agent, moving the open-source AI agent from a command-line tool to a standalone app.
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