Pavel Durov’s Release Fuels TON’s 22% Rally. What’s Next for TON?
The enigmatic founder of the Telegram app Pavel Durov, has been finally allowed to temporarily leave France. He immediately flew to Dubai on Saturday after his arrest at Le Bourget Airport near Paris in August 2024.
The news of this release and immediate departure from France had a quick effect on the cryptocurrency market as the TON (The Open Network) crypto displayed an impressive rise on that very day. TON has long been associated with Durov, even though he gave up control over that crypto several years ago. Once Durov left France, TON’s price spiked by more than 22%, largely paring its recent losses faced in the market.
That immense growth was followed by an approximately 6% decline as the TON price rolled back.
Durov’s arrest in France and TON decline that followed
Billionaire Pavel Durov was detained in August near Paris after he had flown there in his private jet over his refusal to collaborate with the French authorities regarding censorship and user data on his platform. The authorities charged Durov with allowing Telegram to be used for illicit activities, including the distribution of child pornography and narcotics trafficking.
Durov’s detainment raised the eyebrows of many, sparking speculation. While some commentators believed his arrest was linked to authorities around the world beginning investigations into rich tech entrepreneurs, others thought it was about Telegram’s ongoing issues as it faced regulators and governments worldwide, refusing to give them access to user data and to apply censorship too.
The situation got so serious that Durov was facing a prison term up to 20 years back in August. The whole world and particularly Telegram users were watching the news about that with all the possible attention.
After the arrest, Durov’s legal status seemed somewhat uncertain, which sent shockwaves through the crypto community. The toncoin price reacted by crashing by more than 20% – the coin fell from $6.76 to $5.36. Fears began rising that regulatory attack on Durov could expand to TON and Telegram itself, preventing it from further telegram blockchain integration.
After creating the TON cryptocurrency back in 2018, Durov and the Telegram developer team officially left that project. Despite this fact, Pavel’s influence over it remains strong, even though it is indirect these days. Telegram continues integrating payments made in TON, NFTs based on this network, and TON-based dapps into its ecosystem. Therefore, traders and investors still associate TON with Durov and his vision of how Telegram and TON should expand, going hand in hand. That’s why Durov’s arrest was considered a direct threat to the project’s future.
The situation remained tense for more than half a year, even though Telegram increased its compliance policy after Durov’s arrest. Still, Pavel was lucky enough – he was released on a $5 million bail but he had to stay in France and report to the police station twice a week.
As Durov was allowed to leave for the UAE, the 22% TON price surge indicated investors’ big relief upon the fact that Durov was now free and so were Telegram and TON from legal issues and threats from authorities.
Brief history of TON
Originally, cryptocurrency toncoin was launched in 2018 when Durov decided to boost Telegram with its own blockchain and raised more than $1.7 billion from investors during a closed Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Back then, this was seen as one of the most exciting telegram blockchain projects, considering the reputation of Telegram and Durov’s status of a billionaire tech innovator and visionary.
TON Coin aims to become a high-speed network that can support decentralized applications like Ethereum without congestion. Financial transactions will be implemented on Telegram.
However, the project soon encountered a regulatory hurdle. In 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Telegram, insisting that TON’s ICO was an unregistered security offering. Telegram was forced to endure a costly legal battle, which ultimately caused Durov to abandon this ambitious project. He refunded investors, and after that, Telegram was no longer involved with TON.
That was not the end of TON, though. An independent group of developers was permitted to continue working on the project without Durov’s participation but keeping its core technology intact. TON was renamed as The Open Network.
What’s next for TON?
Now that Durov has safely returned to Dubai and TON is gradually recovering from its long-term decline, many crypto enthusiasts hope that TON’s future will thrive and expand beyond its current borders. The network is already making great progress in decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and peer-to-peer payments. Telegram has already begun integrating TON-based services for its users, who have so far used it only as a messaging app.
Analysts and many crypto enthusiasts believe that TON is likely to expand to the scale and popularity of Ethereum if it continues to roll out services powered by TON and its global adoption skyrockets. Another important factor here is that governments around the world are currently scrutinizing crypto heavily, even though there are signs of the SEC turning soft on many US-based crypto companies as it has been dropping multiple large lawsuits against Coinbase, Robinhood, Uniswap, etc.
Ultimately, Durov’s impact on TON remains quite strong. But regardless of whether he decides to take a more active role in the project’s fate or completely steps away from it, TON has already proved its worth and strength to investors who believe it to be one of the most promising coins in the crypto market these days. If you’re looking to buy TON and join the growing ecosystem, you can do so easily on Margex.
