The detention of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, increased Toncoin selling pressure as large whales continued their accumulation.
According to data from IntoTheBlock, 92% of the Toncoin (TON) supply is in the hands of whales and investors, who hold over 0.1% of the total supply of 5.1 billion. The remaining 8% of TON tokens are currently held in retail addresses, holding less than 0.1% of the total supply.
Data shows that large TON holders accumulated 13.14 million tokens as the asset’s price fell below the $6 mark on August 25, hitting a local low of $5.32.
Toncoin price plunged 20% after Durov was arrested in France, where he could face up to 20 years in prison. TON’s market capitalization suddenly dropped by $3.8 billion, causing it to slip from eighth to eleventh place among the leading cryptocurrencies.
However, TON soon recovered some of its losses as the crypto community began to show support to the Telegram founder.
Toncoin is up 2% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $5.62 at the time of writing. The asset’s market capitalization crossed the $14 billion mark with a daily trading volume of $1.2 billion.
Notably, TON briefly hit an intraday high of $5.93 earlier today but was unable to sustain further due to increased selling pressure.
Data shows that Toncoin is slightly oversold at this price with a Relative Strength Index of 44. High price fluctuations could be normal for TON as fear surrounds the asset.
