Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested in France, $TON Token Crashes 12%

Reportedly, Pavel Durov was arrested at a French airport for failing to prohibit censorship of some data and information against the government.

Pavel Durov is a Russian-born entrepreneur best known for founding the social networking site VKontakte (VK) and later the popular messaging app Telegram. Telegram, launched in 2013, is a cloud-based messaging service known for its focus on speed, security, and user privacy. It allows users to send messages, photos, videos, and files of any type, and offers features like secret chats and self-destructing messages.

On 25 Aug 2024, as per many reports circulating across social media users of X (formerly Twitter) platform, the Telegram founder has been arrested at a French airport.

According to several media reports, Durov faced a warrant in France based on a preliminary police investigation. The French authorities reportedly claim that Telegram’s lack of content moderation and unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement make Durov an accomplice to drug trafficking, money laundering, and the sharing of child pornography that allegedly occur via the app.

So far, no official statement has come to the public domain from French authorities or Telegram officials regarding this matter, but this news has badly impacted the trade price of the $TON coin, a popular cryptocurrency among Telegram crypto users. 

The current trade price of the $TON coin is $5.93, and this price is 13% down over the last 24-hour period. Notably, the trade price of this token crashed badly an hour ago, following the arrest news of the Telegram founder. 

Telegram, TON Blockchain & TON Coin

In 2018, the Telegram team planned to launch a Telegram users-focused blockchain network called TON (Telegram Open Network), which aimed to provide decentralized services, including payments and file storage. But later, due to legal hurdles with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Telegram abandoned the TON project idea in 2020. Despite this, the technology developed for TON has continued in the form of the community-led TON (The Open Network) project, with independent developers working on its growth. 

Currently, a big user base of Telegram uses crypto payments via the Telegram platform with the help of the TON blockchain, which is integrated into Telegram via chatbots. 

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