Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France late Saturday, according to a local media report, after arriving on his private jet from Azerbaijan. As the news spread, the price of Toncoin (TON)—the token of the Telegram-affiliated The Open Network—plunged sharply.
The 39-year-old Durov was arrested by France’s National Anti-Fraud Office, reports TF1, over what the publication said were various charges tied to alleged illegal conduct by Telegram users that the service reportedly refused to moderate. According to the publication, this includes charges linked to facilitating terrorism, the sale of narcotics and stolen goods, fraud, and more.
Decrypt reached out to Telegram for confirmation and comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
It’s unclear why Durov, who reportedly does not travel to many countries where Telegram has faced scrutiny, had flown to France on Sunday. TF1 cites an unnamed investigator who said that Durov will “for sure” end up in pre-trial detention.
Telegram’s user base recently topped the 950 million mark, Durov announced in July, with a recent spike in users coinciding with the rise of crypto-fueled games playable on the messaging app via integrated “mini apps.” Hamster Kombat, the largest of them, has reportedly amassed over 300 million players over the past few months ahead of an upcoming token launch and airdrop.
The Open Network was originally created internally at Telegram, but the firm abandoned the project in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny. Development continued externally via a community of contributors, and over the past year, Telegram has increasingly embraced and integrated the blockchain network.
While that close association has apparently helped boost the price of TON by more than 300% over the past year, that link appears to be hitting TON’s price hard Saturday. TON is down by nearly 17% over the past 24 hours as of this writing, and fell from a price of $6.80 before the reports hit to a current price of $5.61, according to CoinGecko.
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