In an unexpected development, this Sunday, the crypto world was shocked by Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram messaging app and the visionary behind the initial version of the TON coin, taken in custody in a French airport.
Durov may face up to 20 years in prison should a French court decide to sentence him. Therefore, many are wondering what is likely to happen to the cryptocurrency that was designed by Durov’s team, even though eventually it is run by another group of independent developers. Durov’s name still has a big impact on Toncoin’s (TON) price movements. After his arrest, the coin faced an astounding price collapse.
Durov’s Arrest in Paris
The billionaire and Telegram founder was arrested upon leaving his personal jet on arrival in Paris. The charges set against him are about his refusal to yield to the demands of French authorities and law enforcement agencies who want Durov’s team to leave backdoors in the Telegram code. Telegram is a popular messaging platform in many countries around the world with more than 800 million active users as of 2024. It is known for encrypted messages and also Secret Chats, where users can set timers for seeing their messages and media they send become self-destructed.
They claim that Telegram has become a leading platform for terrorists, scammers and even child abusers without Durov imposing enough moderation on their illicit activities or collaborating with French cyberpolice.
Durov already opposed the authorities in the past. In 2019, when he conducted the TON ICO and raised almost $2 billion from a closed circle of investors, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Durov and Telegram, claiming TON to be an unregistered security. The Telegram founder chose not to continue his innovative cryptocurrency project and gave up launching it. He returned the raised funds to the investors and paid a massive fine to the SEC.
However, Toncoin was picked by an independent group of enthusiastic developers and they did launch it but under a slightly different name, in which TON stands for The Open Network.
Crypto Influencers React to Durov’s Detention
The reaction of the cryptocurrency community to Durov’s arrest was rather mixed. While altcoin lovers began to actively support him and among them the founder of the Tron blockchain Justin Sun, who suggested setting up a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to help Durov get rid of the charges in a legal way, promising to donate a $1 million for the DAO if it gets enough community support, Bitcoin maximalists turned against Durov. They believed that his arrest was well justified since Telegram is often used by scammers and fraudsters who imposter crypto celebrities and influencers to defraud investors of their money.
Today, French president Macron told journalists that Durov’s fate will be decided by the court only, insisting that his arrest was not caused by political reasons.
Tech magnate and owner of the X app Elon Musk also published several tweets to support Durov. Similarly to Telegram, X’s policy and Musk’s personal position include protection of users’ personal data and refusal to implement censorship on the platform. Musk believes that unlike Durov, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also allows scams and abusive materials on Facebook. However, Musk said in a recent tweet, Zuck has long opened his doors for law-enforcement agents, providing them with personal data of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Besides, these platforms are well-known for server censorship towards users.
In the meantime, X is having issues with the government in Brazil and was forced to close their office in that country over the demands of the local prime minister to gain access to personal data of local users. The EU authorities demand Elon Musk to allow them the same in their territory, otherwise threatening to shut down access to the platform in the European Union.
TON Reacts by 25% Price Crash
Shortly after Pavel Durov was detained in a Paris airport, Toncoin price staged a crash in three large red hourly candles, falling by more than 20% – from $6.76 to $4,97 per coin.
After that, TON made a pretty quick recovery, recapturing roughly 11% of its losses but by now another decline took place, pushing the coin down by another 5.60%. At press-time, TON is trading at $5.30.
Overall, the TON community has made an official statement that the TON chain remains fully operational and is not impacted by the arrest of Durov in any way.
Many in the crypto space believe that TON still has quite bright prospects as the coin operates completely independently of Durov and his team. In light of his arrest, the TON community is likely to rally together and show even higher dedication to the idea of promoting decentralized Internet, experts believe. Besides, the detention of the tech billionaire is not determined yet – he still stands a chance of winning in French court. If he walks out of prison without spending any long term in it, this is likely to triple the encouragement and dedication of the TON team to continue working and expanding TON’s liquidity, utility, which may lead to a substantial price growth.
