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Posted on May 24 • Originally published at ton-adoption.xyz on May 24

How to Sell Telegram Gifts via Marketplaces — Guide 2026

#gaming #ton #telegram #gifts

Selling an upgraded Telegram gift is harder than buying. Buying is “find a lot, click Buy”. Selling is choose a venue, assess the market, price correctly, wait for a buyer, then handle tax. This guide walks the whole chain step by step.

TL;DR

Pick venue by lot: Portals for top collections and speed, Tonnel for large trades and low fee, MRKT for grails, Getgems for auctions.
Price right: study current floor + history of similar sales. Ordinary lot — +1-3% over floor; rare — multiplier calculation.
Escrow is safe — smart contract holds the gift until sold. Atomic on-chain settlement.
Net proceeds after ~5% fee + ~0.10 TON gas: on 100 TON — ~94.9-96.5 TON depending on venue.
Tax: in Russia — 13% personal income on net profit as “other property”. Document everything.

Below — step by step.

Step 1: pick the venue

No universal best choice. Depends on the lot.

Scenarios

Lot type	Best venue	Why
Top collection, ordinary attributes	Portals	High liquidity, fast sale
Top collection, large lot (200+ TON)	Tonnel + Portals in parallel	Lower fee from Tonnel + speed from Portals
Grail (rare attribute combination)	MRKT + Portals in parallel	Targets grail hunters
Rare lot, willing to wait for premium	Getgems (auction)	Auction premium
Long-tail collection, low liquidity	Any, or just hold	Often easier to hold and wait
Username or +888 number	Fragment	Only official venue

What “list in parallel” means

On two or three venues simultaneously — yes, possible and often optimal. Each listing is a separate on-chain tx, the gift physically transfers to escrow of only one marketplace. So “parallel listing” means: list on Portals, cancel when a buyer appears on Tonnel, and vice versa.

Requires monitoring and quick reaction. Easiest: list on one as primary, on another only if the first doesn’t sell within a day.

Step 2: fair-price assessment

Top newcomer mistake — listing at “average” without analysis.

Base method

Open the collection on Portals and Tonnel.
Check current floor — minimum active listing price.
Check 7-day floor dynamics. Rising — you can sit slightly above; falling — go below.
Compare your attributes to current listings. Is your model as rare as floor’s? Is the backdrop rare? Is mint number in the first thousand?
Find 3-5 similar lots — close attributes and mint number. See where they’re listed.

For rare lots (grails)

A grail is a rare combination. Priced by floor multiplier:

Combination rarity 0.1% in collection — typical multiplier 5-15× floor.
0.01% — multiplier 30-100× floor.
The exact multiplier reflects current demand and a few recent comparable sales.

Open MRKT, filter by your lot’s attributes — you’ll see competition and current fair price.

Price strategies

Asap-sale: 0.5-1% below floor. Likely sells within minutes.
Standard: floor + 1-3%. Sells in hours-days on a liquid market.
Patient: floor + 5-10%. Works if you’re confident in the collection and can wait a week or two.
Auction: via Getgems with real reserve. Suits rare lots.

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Overpricing is worse than underpricing

Top mistake — too-high price. The lot sits and doesn’t sell, and you pay gas on every relist (~0.05 TON). Over several relistings you can lose 0.3-0.5 TON to gas alone. Better to price adequately from the start and not come back.

Step 3: the listing flow — step by step

Walking through Portals; Tonnel and MRKT are nearly identical.

1. Open the gifts catalogue

In your Telegram profile, go to “Gifts”. Find the upgraded gift you want to sell.

On screen you see: the gift card with attributes (model, backdrop, symbol, mint number) and a “Sell on Portals” button (or similar depending on settings).

2. Open Portals and select the gift

The Portals mini-app opens. Gift is pre-selected. If not — find under “My Inventory”.

On screen you see: the lot card, current collection floor, a price input field in TON.

3. Set the price

Type the price in TON. Portals shows:

Recommended range based on floor.
Net TON after fee.
Gas required for listing.

On screen you see: “You’ll receive X TON after Y% marketplace fee + Z TON gas”.

4. Sign the listing via TON Connect

Click “List”. A TON Connect window opens with a detailed transaction.

What should be in the TON Connect window:

Recipient address — the Portals smart-contract address. Public, documented.
Operation type — nft_transfer or similar.
Object — the specific NFT with your mint number.
Gas — typically 0.05-0.07 TON.

If something looks off (e.g. recipient is not the Portals contract but an unknown wallet) — don’t sign. That’s phishing.

5. Lot is live

In Portals you now see an entry under “My Listings”. Status “Active”. The gift is no longer physically in your wallet — it’s in the marketplace escrow contract.

6. Wait for buyer

Minutes, hours, or days depending on price and liquidity.

7. Sale

When a buyer hits “Buy” and signs, a single atomic on-chain operation:

TON debits from buyer.
~5% TON retained by contract as fee.
95% TON sent to your address.
NFT transfers to buyer.

Portals notification: “Sold for X TON. Y TON received”. Verify in wallet or on TONScan by hash.

Alternative: cancel listing

To unlist — click “Cancel listing”. Second on-chain tx (~0.05 TON gas). After confirmation NFT returns to your wallet.

Step 4: fee breakdown and real proceeds

On a 100 TON listing:

Venue	Marketplace fee	Listing gas	Net proceeds
Portals	~5 TON	~0.05 TON	~94.95 TON
Tonnel	~3-4 TON	~0.05 TON	~95.95-96.95 TON
MRKT	~5 TON	~0.05 TON	~94.95 TON
Getgems	~5 TON	~0.05 TON	~94.95 TON

At volume the Tonnel gap matters. Selling 10 lots at 100 TON each:

On Portals: 949.5 TON net.
On Tonnel: 959.5-969.5 TON net.
Gap: 10-20 TON.

Step 5: tax in Russia

Disclaimer: this is not tax advice, only a description of current practice. Before acting on large sums — consult a crypto-focused tax specialist.

Base position

Selling a Telegram gift in Russia:

Not covered by the CFA law (gift not issued by an RU IS operator).
Falls under the general “other property” category (Tax Code article 220).
Taxed at 13% personal income (15% above 5M RUB/year).
Documented acquisition costs and marketplace fees deductible.

Document everything

For each trade keep:

Purchase price or upgrade cost (if received “free” and paid only Stars for the upgrade).
Sale price — final TON received.
TON/RUB rate at time of sale — for declarations.
Marketplace fee — deductible.
TON network gas — deductible.
Transaction hashes for the audit trail.

When declaration is mandatory

Annual profit above 5M RUB — mandatory declaration (15% on the excess).
RU tax resident — declarations are mandatory on any property sale income (except certain holding-period exemptions).
If FNS asks — you must respond.

Reclassification risk

On systematic trading (e.g. 100+ trades/month with regular profit) FNS can reclassify as entrepreneurial activity. Consequences:

Mandatory IP registration.
6% USN-income tax or 13% OSNO + insurance contributions.
Fines for non-registration.

For moderate trading (5-30 trades/month) you stay in the “other property” regime without serious reclassification risk.

Pre-sale checklist

Compared floor on Portals, Tonnel, MRKT.
Assessed whether the lot is ordinary or rare — checked MRKT filters.
Picked venue based on lot type.
Set a goal: fast or expensive.
Opened the marketplace only via ton.app or a verified link.
Connected wallet via TON Connect — verified I’m signing a tx to the legitimate contract address.
Set price accounting for fee and gas.
Signed the listing.
Saved the transaction hash.

Post-sale checklist

Verified TON arrived in wallet.
Saved the sale tx hash.
Recorded sale price and TON/RUB rate at time of trade.
If annual profit approaches the limits — preparing declaration.

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