Telegram Ads in the USA — SEC, CFTC and FTC Rules, Measured CPM (2026)

TL;DR

The USA is open for Telegram Ads: it is one of the 229 country options in the ad form, on Euro and TON accounts alike. Campaigns we ran for the USA alone cost 0.39 TON per thousand impressions at a 1.97% CTR on TON accounts (14.8M impressions, 12 accounts, 22 August–3 October 2026). We have no Euro-account measurement for the USA yet.

Delivery is the easy part. Whether an offer may be advertised to people in the United States is decided by US law, and several regulators share it:

• Crypto — the SEC and the CFTC. On 17 March 2026 the SEC published an interpretation, joined by the CFTC, that sorts crypto assets into digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities. Only the last group is a security in itself, but any of them can still be sold as part of an investment contract. Congress has not passed a market-structure law: the Senate vote to take up the CLARITY Act failed 49–50 on 15 September 2026.
• Moving money — FinCEN and the states. A money services business registers with FinCEN; the states license on top of that, New York through its BitLicense and California through its Digital Financial Assets Law since 1 July 2026.
• Retail forex — the CFTC. A retail foreign exchange dealer must be registered, and leverage is capped at 50:1 on major currency pairs.
• Claims — the FTC, and the FDA for health. An advertiser needs a reasonable basis for a claim before the ad runs; a supplement label has to say the product is not intended to treat a disease.
• Betting — state by state. Sports betting is legal only where a state has legalised it; Telegram’s own guidelines prohibit gambling ads everywhere.

Offers with no licence question — SaaS, e-commerce, consumer goods and services, B2B, education — target the USA like any other country. Complying with US law is the advertiser’s responsibility; this guide maps the rules and links the sources, and it is not legal advice.

Who you reach in the USA

Telegram does not publish user numbers by country. The figures that circulate for the USA come from statistics aggregators that we could not trace to a primary source, so we do not quote one. What can be sourced:

• A large, connected country. 324 million internet users in October 2025, 93.1% of the population, with a median age of 38.5 (DataReportal, Digital 2026: The United States of America). Those are internet users, not Telegram users.
• More iPhone than Android. iOS carried about 54% of mobile web traffic in the USA in September 2026 and Android 46% (StatCounter). That is web traffic, not Telegram’s own split, but it tells you which device to test first; the ad form lets you target each separately.
• English first. Telegram’s ad guidelines say the language of the targeted channel should match the language of the ad and of the destination (§4.7). Spanish or Russian creative belongs in Spanish- or Russian-language channels, as separate campaigns.
• Mini Apps. RichAds, an ad network that sells placements inside Telegram Mini Apps, lists the USA first among its “most trending geos for Telegram Mini App ads” in 2026 (RichAds, updated September 2026). That is one network’s own data, not a Telegram statistic.

How these groups split inside Telegram’s US audience — by city, age or interest — is not something we have measured.

What a thousand impressions costs in the USA — measured

Our US-targeted campaigns have so far run on TON accounts, so the measurement is in TON (single-country campaigns, all niches blended, 22 Aug–3 Oct 2026):

Account type	CPM	CTR	Cost per click	Impressions	Accounts
TON	0.39 TON	1.97%	0.020 TON	14.8M	12

That is a price in TON, not euros, and we do not convert it; we have no Euro-account measurement for the USA yet. We do not publish a per-niche split for the USA: the base is too thin to separate SaaS from fintech or crypto honestly. What changes from niche to niche in the USA is the law, not the price — the sections below take crypto, forex, health and betting in turn. Prices for other countries: Telegram Ads CPM by country.

The US regulatory map in 30 seconds

The USA has no single advertising regulator. Who you answer to depends on what you sell. This is how the map stands in October 2026:

• SEC — securities, and which crypto assets are securities. The interpretation of 17 March 2026 sets out five categories — digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities — and explains how a crypto asset that is not itself a security can become subject to an investment contract, and stop being subject to one (SEC press release 2026-30). In Jones Day’s reading of the text, it names Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and Dogecoin among the digital commodities, and an investment contract arises when an issuer sells the asset with promises of managerial efforts from which a buyer would reasonably expect profit (Jones Day, March 2026). It is an interpretation, not a statute.
• Congress — no market-structure law yet. The CLARITY Act would divide oversight of crypto markets between the SEC and the CFTC. On 15 September 2026 the Senate voted 49–50 against taking it up; 60 votes were needed (Decrypt). Stablecoins do have a federal law: the GENIUS Act, signed on 18 July 2025, requires 100% reserve backing and forbids issuers from claiming that a stablecoin is backed by the US government, federally insured or legal tender (White House fact sheet).
• CFTC — commodities, derivatives and retail forex. The CFTC joined the March 2026 interpretation and administers the Commodity Exchange Act in line with it. A retail foreign exchange dealer must register (17 CFR 5.3), and the minimum security deposit is 2% of the trade for major currency pairs and 5% for all others — leverage of 50:1 and 20:1 at most (17 CFR 5.9).
• FinCEN and the states — money transmission. Each money services business must register with the Treasury Department, within 180 days of being established (FinCEN); FinCEN’s guidance of 9 May 2019 explains how those rules apply to business models built on convertible virtual currency (FIN-2019-G001). The states license separately. In New York no one may engage in virtual currency business activity without a licence from the superintendent (23 NYCRR 200.3). In California, since 1 July 2026 a crypto company serving Californians must hold a Digital Financial Assets Law licence or have filed a completed application (DFPI).
• FTC — every claim, in every niche. Under FTC law an advertiser must have a reasonable basis for a product claim before the ad runs, and the FTC has acted not only against marketers but also against ad agencies and others who took part in deceptive promotion (FTC, Health Products Compliance Guidance, December 2022).
• FDA — health products. The FTC and the FDA share jurisdiction over supplement marketing. On the label, a dietary supplement that makes a structure-or-function claim must carry the words “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” (21 CFR 101.93).
• The states — betting and adult content. Sports betting is legal state by state: Missouri became the 39th state to legalise it, with its launch set for 1 December 2025 (Covers, May 2025). States may also require proof of age before sexual content is shown: the Supreme Court upheld the Texas law in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton on 27 June 2025 (opinion).

What that means for an ad:

1. A crypto exchange or wallet should be able to show its FinCEN registration and the state licences for the states it serves. The licences are state by state; the country option in the ad form is the USA as a whole.
2. A token needs a view on which of the five categories it falls in. Copy that promises profit from the team’s future work describes exactly what the interpretation calls an investment contract.
3. Yield and guarantees. “Guaranteed return” fails twice: Telegram’s guidelines prohibit “offers of investment with guaranteed return” (§5.7), and under FTC law a claim needs a reasonable basis before it runs.
4. Education — courses, newsletters, market explainers — is a different product from a trading service. Where the line to investment advice sits is a question for a US securities lawyer.

Path 1 — a registered firm, country = USA

A Euro account — a World account — with campaigns targeting the USA, English creative, and the registration your product needs in place before the first ad. Start from our measured US level (0.39 TON per thousand impressions on TON accounts) and raise the bid only if delivery stalls.

Telegram allows 160 characters per ad text, so a disclosure has to be short; the longer versions below belong on the landing page. They show the framing and are not legal wording:

Registered crypto exchange:

{Brand}. Registered MSB with FinCEN. Trade BTC, ETH and 30+ assets. Trading carries risk; assets are not FDIC-insured. NMLS #{number}. Available in {state list}.

Securities offering under Reg A+:

{Brand} Reg A+ offering, qualified by the SEC. Open to all US investors. Read the offering circular at {link}. Investing involves risk of loss.

Fintech (banking-as-a-service, BaaS):

{Brand}. Banking services provided by {partner bank}, Member FDIC. Mobile checking with no overdraft fees. APR varies; see terms.

TON mini-app launch:

Earn TON rewards in {app name}. New game / loyalty / quiz app live on Telegram. Withdraw to your wallet. Free to play.

Regulation A lets a company raise up to $20 million in twelve months under Tier 1 and up to $75 million under Tier 2 (SEC). Do not write “registered”, “qualified” or “Member FDIC” unless it is true.

Path 2 — a firm without US registration

A paid ad aimed at US residents is solicitation, so an ad campaign cannot produce a customer who “came on their own”. Whether an unregistered firm may serve a US resident who really did come on their own initiative is a question for US counsel, not for an ad guide. What the ad account can do is keep the USA out of the campaign:

• The USA is not in the campaign’s country list. The form targets the countries you select; leave the USA unselected.
• The creative does not address Americans: no dollar pricing, no US payment methods, no US states named.
• Users are targeted by country, not by channel. Channel targeting describes the place, not the reader, so an ad placed in an English-language trading channel is shown to that channel’s readers in the USA too.

Blocking US visitors on the landing page and refusing US documents at onboarding is your own compliance work. A line saying “not for US residents” under a campaign that targets the USA changes nothing.

Path 3 — no licence question, full US targeting

SaaS, B2B, e-commerce and consumer products use the standard setup with the USA as the country. Price against the measured US level above rather than a per-niche guess, and measure cost per click in your own funnel.

Write for Americans rather than for “English speakers”: dollar prices, the payment methods your US buyers already use, US proof points. We have not measured how much that changes click-through, so treat it as a test, not a rule.

Mini Apps — what we can and cannot say about the USA

A Mini App is an ordinary destination on both account types, and a Euro World account runs a Mini App launch next to any website campaign. What we can put a source on:

• One external signal. RichAds lists the USA first among its trending countries for Mini App ads in 2026. That is its own inventory, not Telegram’s data.
• One number of ours, and it is not US-specific. On our Euro accounts in September 2026 a click to a Mini App cost €0.038, against €0.223 to a bot, €0.266 to a website and €0.355 to a channel — all countries together, and the Mini App row rests on six accounts, so it is thin.
• What we do not have. No cost per install, no retention figure and no withdrawal data for the USA. Measure them in your own funnel.

Adsly setup for the USA

1. Pick a Euro account. It can link to a website as well as to a channel, bot or Mini App, add a custom button and have a declined ad escalated to a human through us. A TON account links to Telegram destinations only: channels, bots and Mini Apps. Both use the same targeting form since 22 August 2026, and the USA is not among the four countries where TON-funded ads are not served (Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine).
2. Opening. A Euro account opens in 2 business days as a World account: its campaigns can target the USA or any other available country. Minimum ad budget: €500; €1,000 for crypto and for stocks and investing; forex stays at €500; nutra, dating and adult, and binary options start at €5,000 and open in 4 business days. Payment in any cryptocurrency, no KYC. Price your Euro account →
3. Access. You get the account itself on ads.telegram.org and the Adsly Pro Panel on app.adsly.pro.
4. Targeting. Country: USA. Language: English. Then topics — “Economy & Finance”, “Cryptocurrencies” and “Technology & Internet” are exact names from the form — or the channels your customers already follow. The form also has a Locations field that searches locations inside the selected country; which ones it offers for the USA is visible in the account, and we have not measured city-level campaigns.
5. Frequency. Views per User: start at 1–2 (the form allows 1 to 4).
6. Timing. We have no hour-of-day data for the USA, so we publish no “best hours”. Run for a week, then read the hourly analytics of your own campaigns.
7. Moderation. Expect a decision within hours: over 98% of the 13,199 campaigns we measured in September 2026 had one within three hours. Across all niches, 95.6% of reviewed ads on our Euro accounts and 86.8% on TON accounts end up approved. Opening an account does not approve any ad.

Who is responsible for what

Adsly opens the account and gives you the tools. What may be advertised to people in the United States is decided by US law and by Telegram’s moderation, and that responsibility stays with the advertiser:

• Gambling and betting. Telegram’s ad guidelines prohibit gambling ads: §5.6 says ads must not promote “online or offline gambling, gaming, or casino-based activities involving real money, prizes, or goods of any value” (guidelines), and its examples name sports betting and fantasy sports. With us gambling runs in two formats only — an official gambling account, ad budget from €25,000, or a test launch on our infrastructure, ad budget from €5,000 — described in the gambling policy guide. Neither changes US law: betting is legal only state by state, so check each state with local counsel.
• Crypto, securities and forex. The registration questions above are yours to answer before launch, with US counsel if the offer is anywhere near the line. The licence and compliance with US law are the advertiser’s responsibility; an open account says nothing about them.
• Health and supplements. Telegram’s guidelines say promoted products must comply with all local regulations and list products with unverified health claims among prohibited content (§5.8). In the USA that means proof for every health claim under FTC law, and the FDA disclaimer itself says what a supplement may not promise: to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent a disease.
• Pharma and CBD. We do not take them, in any country.
• Everything else — SaaS, B2B, e-commerce, education, consumer offers — runs with the USA as the target and no licence layer.

FAQ

Is Telegram Ads available in the USA in 2026?

Yes. The USA is a country option on Euro and TON accounts, and our TON accounts served 14.8M US-targeted impressions between 22 August and 3 October 2026.

Can I advertise crypto to US users?

A registered business can: FinCEN registration, the state licences for the states it serves, and a product that is not an unregistered security. Since 17 March 2026 the SEC’s interpretation gives a taxonomy to work from — digital commodities, collectibles, tools and stablecoins are not securities in themselves, digital securities are — but the way a token is sold can still make the sale an investment contract. Keep profit promises out of the copy.

What happened to the CLARITY Act?

On 15 September 2026 the Senate voted 49–50 against taking the bill up; 60 votes were needed, and Senate leaders can bring it back. Until a law passes, the March 2026 interpretation is the working reference, and it can be revised more easily than a statute.

What about Reg A+ offerings on Telegram?

Regulation A allows up to $20 million in twelve months under Tier 1 and $75 million under Tier 2. What an ad for such an offering must say and link to is a question for your securities counsel. On Telegram’s side, §5.7 prohibits offers of investment with guaranteed return. We have not measured campaigns for securities offerings.

Are Mini Apps a fit for the USA?

A Mini App is an ordinary destination on both account types. The only external signal we can cite is RichAds listing the USA first among its trending countries for Mini App ads in 2026. Our own Mini App click price — €0.038 on Euro accounts in September 2026 — is not US-specific and rests on six accounts.

Many states now license sports betting. Can a licensed sportsbook advertise?

Telegram’s guidelines (§5.6) prohibit gambling ads and name sports betting; a state licence does not change that text. With us gambling runs only as an official gambling account (ad budget from €25,000) or as a test launch on our infrastructure (ad budget from €5,000) — see the gambling policy guide. US law is a separate question, state by state.

Can I target only New York, or only some states?

The country option is the USA. The ad form also has a Locations field that searches locations inside the selected country. Which locations it offers for the USA is visible in your account; we have not measured state- or city-level campaigns, so we promise nothing about a New-York-only campaign. Targeting the channels a New York audience reads is the other route.

How do I keep US users out of a campaign?

Do not select the USA in the country list, and target by country rather than by channel: an ad placed in a channel is shown to that channel’s readers wherever they are. Blocking US visitors on the landing page is your own work.

Will Telegram moderation reject my US crypto or securities ad?

Moderation reviews each ad against Telegram’s guidelines, not against US securities law. Across all niches 95.6% of reviewed ads on our Euro accounts and 86.8% on TON accounts end up approved; we publish no approval rate by niche. An approved ad is not a legal opinion.

Is the USA more expensive than Brazil?

On our TON accounts, no: the USA measured 0.39 TON per thousand impressions, Brazil 0.61 TON. In euros there is nothing to compare: we have no Euro-account measurement for the USA, while Brazil on Euro accounts is €2.22.

Does Adsly help with SEC, FinCEN or state registration?

No. That is work for US counsel. We open the ad account and provide the tools to run it.

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The USA is a market where buying the impressions is the easy half: 0.39 TON per thousand on our TON accounts. The other half is knowing which regulator your offer answers to, and in 2026 that map moved. Not sure where your offer sits? Ask us at @adsly_pro before you fund the account.