Report: TON price plunges 17% after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is arrested in France

According to a local media report, Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France late Saturday after arriving on his private jet from Azerbaijan. As the news spread, the price of Toncoin (TON) – the token of Telegram-affiliated The Open Network – plummeted.

Durov, 39, was arrested by the French anti-fraud agency, reports TF1for various allegations related to allegedly illegal behavior by Telegram users that the service allegedly refused to moderate. According to the publication, these include allegations related to promoting terrorism, selling narcotics and stolen goods, fraud, and more.

Decrypt I asked Telegram for confirmation and comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

It is unclear why Durov, who reportedly does not travel to many countries where Telegram has been targeted, flew to France on Sunday. TF1 quotes an unnamed investigator as saying that Durov will “certainly” end up in custody.

Telegram’s user base recently surpassed the 950 million mark, Durov announced in July. The recent surge in user numbers has coincided with the rise of crypto-based games that can be played via built-in “mini apps” on the messaging app. Hamster Kombat, the largest of these apps, has reportedly amassed over 300 million players in recent months ahead of an upcoming token launch and airdrop.

The Open Network was originally developed internally at Telegram, but the company abandoned the project in 2020 due to regulatory scrutiny. Development continued externally through a community of contributors, and over the past year Telegram has increasingly adopted and integrated the blockchain network.

While this close connection appears to have helped boost TON’s price by more than 300% over the past year, this connection appears to have severely impacted TON’s price on Saturday. TON is down nearly 17% in the past 24 hours at the time of writing, falling from a price of $6.80 before the reports came out to a current price of $5.61, according to CoinGecko.