Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France late Saturday, in keeping with an area media report, after arriving on his non-public jet from Azerbaijan. Because the information unfold, the value of Toncoin (TON)—the token of the Telegram-affiliated The Open Community—plunged sharply.
The 39-year-old Durov was arrested by France’s Nationwide Anti-Fraud Workplace, reviews TF1, over what the publication mentioned have been numerous expenses tied to alleged unlawful conduct by Telegram customers that the service reportedly refused to reasonable. Based on the publication, this consists of expenses linked to facilitating terrorism, the sale of narcotics and stolen items, fraud, and extra.
Decrypt reached out to Telegram for affirmation and remark, however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
It is unclear why Durov, who reportedly doesn’t journey to many nations the place Telegram has confronted scrutiny, had flown to France on Sunday. TF1 cites an unnamed investigator who mentioned that Durov will “for positive” find yourself in pre-trial detention.
Telegram’s consumer base just lately topped the 950 million mark, Durov introduced in July, with a current spike in customers coinciding with the rise of crypto-fueled video games playable on the messaging app by way of built-in “mini apps.” Hamster Kombat, the biggest of them, has reportedly amassed over 300 million gamers over the previous few months forward of an upcoming token launch and airdrop.
The Open Community was initially created internally at Telegram, however the agency deserted the challenge in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny. Growth continued externally by way of a neighborhood of contributors, and over the previous yr, Telegram has more and more embraced and built-in the blockchain community.
Whereas that shut affiliation has apparently helped enhance the value of TON by greater than 300% over the previous yr, that hyperlink seems to be hitting TON’s worth laborious Saturday. TON is down by practically 17% over the previous 24 hours as of this writing, and fell from a worth of $6.80 earlier than the reviews hit to a present worth of $5.61, in keeping with CoinGecko.
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