Telegram Japan-Region Stars Pricing Bug | $1.5 for 10,000 Stars, $0.25 for a Year of Premium — Stars Frozen, Rollback Expected
TL;DR
A Telegram pricing bug in Japan let accounts buy Stars ultra-cheap — $1.5 for 10,000 Stars, $0.25 for a year of Premium; Telegram froze the Stars and is expected to roll back purchases.
A now-patched Telegram payment bug on July 23 affected Japanese accounts, letting users buy Stars at ultra-low prices — for example, ~$1.5 for 10,000 Stars and a one-year Premium subscription for as little as $0.25.
Some users used the window to buy the most expensive gifts on Telegram's internal gift market. But Telegram gifts have transfer restrictions — these high-value gifts cannot be moved to external NFT markets to cash out, unless purchased directly through third-party market accounts. That lock is the reason the losses stay in-platform and the reason Telegram can still trace and claw back.
The affected Stars have been frozen. Telegram is expected to roll back these purchases and freeze the accounts that participated — consistent with how similar payment-pricing bugs have been handled. The bug likely stems from a missing unit or exchange rate factor in Japan-region IAP pricing calculation; Telegram has not disclosed technical details on why only Japan triggered it.
Worth comparing: Steam had a similar regional pricing bypass incident weeks ago. Platform-side IAP pricing under "cross-region arbitrage" is being stress-tested repeatedly.
via Zaihua Channel
Some users used the window to buy the most expensive gifts on Telegram's internal gift market. But Telegram gifts have transfer restrictions — these high-value gifts cannot be moved to external NFT markets to cash out, unless purchased directly through third-party market accounts. That lock is the reason the losses stay in-platform and the reason Telegram can still trace and claw back.
The affected Stars have been frozen. Telegram is expected to roll back these purchases and freeze the accounts that participated — consistent with how similar payment-pricing bugs have been handled. The bug likely stems from a missing unit or exchange rate factor in Japan-region IAP pricing calculation; Telegram has not disclosed technical details on why only Japan triggered it.
Worth comparing: Steam had a similar regional pricing bypass incident weeks ago. Platform-side IAP pricing under "cross-region arbitrage" is being stress-tested repeatedly.
via Zaihua Channel
