Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday evening. This was apparently not only a heavy blow for the messenger platform. The “Toncoin”, which is closely linked to Telegram, also collapsed.
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He got out of his private jet, accompanied by a bodyguard and a woman. He had planned to visit a restaurant in Paris – so reports. But instead, Pavel Durov was met by the police, who took the 39-year-old into custody at Le Bourget airport.
Durow is CEO of the messenger Telegram, and is one of the most successful and controversial tech founders in the world. Around 900 million people use his app every month to communicate with each other using encrypted means. But at the same time, Durow ignores legal requirements in many countries. The French authorities have now issued an arrest warrant as part of an investigation into suspected fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, promoting terrorism and cyberbullying. “He made a mistake this evening,” he quoted. “We don’t know why.” Because it was apparently known that the French authorities were looking for Durow, who actually lives in Dubai.
An IPO was planned
The arrest could have serious consequences for Telegram, as the Russian-born man runs the company with an extremely small team. Only 50 employees are said to be employed at Telegram, including Durov’s brother Nikolai. With his estimated fortune of 15 billion dollars, Pavel Durov is a key figure for the app that is difficult to replace. Over the years, the application and its channels have transformed into a social network, and recently the company even sought an IPO in the USA.
The extent of the uncertainty following the arrest is evident in the crypto project TON (The Open Network), which is linked to Telegram. The price of Toncoin, which is one of the largest cryptocurrencies, temporarily collapsed. The project has lost two billion dollars in market capitalization since the arrest. This means that a project that was actually well on its way to bringing cryptocurrencies to the mass market is now in crisis.
TON was considered ambitious – and promising. A large part of the crypto community already uses Telegram to exchange ideas. It therefore made sense to get into the cryptocurrency business. Nikolai Durow, the programming genius behind Telegram, developed the concept for his own blockchain years ago. Even before the launch, the company collected money from large investors, but then the . After problems with the US financial regulator SEC, Telegram had to call off the plans and paid the investors part of their capital .
Restart without Telegram?
A team independent of Telegram was then supposed to continue the blockchain – the Durows officially handed the project over to the community. Since then, the TON team has emphasized that the cryptocurrency and the app are two independent projects. But how much value would TON have without Telegram?
In reality, the connection remained close – and helped TON to a successful restart. In the past two years, the blockchain has risen into the top ten cryptocurrencies. The market value was 25 billion dollars in the spring. It is not known how many coins Pavel Durov himself still holds.
The TON blockchain has long been deeply integrated into the Telegram platform. The TON wallets are integrated into the app. For example, amounts of money can be transferred back and forth between Telegram users. Figures show that this method made the wallet app Tonkeeper one of the most used apps at times. In Germany, the app even made it to first place in the spring. With 900 million monthly active users, Telegram in conjunction with TON seemed to have a chance of bringing the crypto application to the mass market.
In fact, representatives of the TON network spoke out after the arrest:
“Following the recent news related to the Telegram’s founder Pawel Durow, we want to assure everyone that the TON community remains strong and fully operational.
As a community committed to freedom of speech and decentralization, we stand firmly by Pawel during this challenging time. Pawel has been a dedicated advocate for these values, and we believe his efforts to promote an open and decentralized internet will continue to inspire millions.”
The independence of Telegram is also emphasized. The price collapse is a misjudgment of the market. However, due to the close connection between the products, the adaptation in particular is likely to depend heavily on the future of Telegram – and what will happen to the large messaging network is currently completely unclear.
Meanwhile, tech giants like or are showing solidarity with Durow, and the whistleblower has also sided with the Telegram founder.
This text first appeared in Finance Forward, the magazine for the new financial world, which is produced in cooperation between Capital and OMR.
Source: Stern
