apiton blog
How to check who owns a Telegram username
Since 2022 Telegram has sold short and memorable usernames on Fragment as
collectible usernames. Each one is an NFT on the TON blockchain. That makes one question easy
to answer — which wallet owns @name — and leaves another, which person is behind it, mostly
unanswered. Here is what you can find out and how.
Two kinds of usernames
- Ordinary usernames are set for free in Telegram settings. They are not on any blockchain,
and nobody outside Telegram can see who reserved one except by opening
t.me/<name>. - Collectible usernames were auctioned on Fragment. The name is an NFT in the "Telegram Usernames" collection, owned by a TON wallet. The owner can attach it to a Telegram account or channel, transfer it, sell it or auction it.
Everything below is about collectible usernames. If a lookup says "not found", the name is most likely an ordinary username or not taken at all.
Step 1: look up the NFT
Pick one:
- apiton.org — open
apiton.org/username/<name>(lowercase, without@). The page shows the owner wallet, the status and the price if it is listed. Browse the usernames hub, for example 4-character usernames. - Telegram — send
@nameto @apitonBot. The card shows the same data read live from the chain, with buttons for the owner's transactions and alerts. - API — one request, no key needed for a quick check:
curl -X POST https://app.apiton.org/v2.Nft/Username \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"username":"beijing"}'
The response contains address (the NFT item), owner_address, status and, for listed names,
a buy object with the price or the auction state.
Step 2: read the owner field correctly
owner_addressis a wallet, shown in the non-bounceable form (UQ…). See Reading a TON address for why the same wallet can be written three ways.- When a username is for sale through an on-chain sale contract, the NFT technically sits in that contract. apiton reports the seller as the owner, not the contract, so you see the real holder.
- During a Fragment auction the NFT stays in its item contract; the current highest bidder is
a separate field (
last_bid.address) and becomes the owner only when the auction ends.
Step 3: what the chain does not tell you
The blockchain links the username to a wallet. It does not record which Telegram account the
owner assigned the name to. To see the account or channel currently using the name, open
https://t.me/<name>. The account using a name and the wallet owning it can belong to different
people — for example when a company holds names in a treasury wallet.
A wallet's history can still tell you a lot: when it received the name, what else it holds and whether it trades actively. In @apitonBot, tap the owner address on a username card to see its transactions and NFTs.
Step 4: statuses you will see
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not listed | the NFT exists and is not offered for sale |
| For sale | fixed price: on-chain sale contract, or an off-chain Fragment listing ("per fragment.com") |
| On auction | Fragment auction: current bid, next minimum bid, end time |
| Not found | no collectible username with this name |
Lists by status: usernames for sale and username auctions.
Get notified instead of checking again
If you are waiting for a name to be listed or its price to drop, open it in @apitonBot and tap Watch. The bot tells you when it is listed, sold, re-priced or when an auction gets a new bid — see Getting alerts with @apitonBot.