- Pavel Durov has been granted permission by France to journey to Dubai for 14 days amid an ongoing legal investigation.
- French authorities allege Telegram has been used for cybercrime, cash laundering, and different illicit exercise.
- Telegram’s blockchain mission TON has seen explosive development, although consumer exercise has dipped since its 2024 peak.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has as soon as once more obtained permission from French authorities to go away the nation—although simply barely. The embattled CEO, nonetheless below investigation for alleged legal exercise tied to his messaging app, can journey solely to Dubai for 14 consecutive days beginning July 10, in line with French outlet Le Monde.
This marks the second time since his August 2024 arrest that Durov has been allowed to go away France. Again in March, he was given a brief window to go to Dubai, the place Telegram is headquartered. However this isn’t nearly enterprise. Durov additionally cited private causes for needing to go—a few of them fairly critical.
“I’ve a son who was simply born and I’m lacking the primary months of his life. He nonetheless doesn’t have a passport, as a result of I wasn’t current at his start in Dubai,” Durov shared in an interview with Le Level. “I even have a teenage son in boarding college in Dubai who simply broke his arm. No mother or father by his aspect. It’s robust.”
Below Fireplace in France
French investigators allege that Telegram—below Durov’s management—enabled a spread of unlawful actions, together with distributing instruments for encrypted communication, facilitating cash laundering, and even internet hosting content material involving minors. The Nationwide Anti-Fraud Workplace detained Durov final August as a part of a sweeping cybercrime probe.
Regardless of the authorized warmth, Telegram continues to function globally and stays significantly influential within the crypto area. It backs The Open Community (TON), a Layer 1 blockchain whose native token, Toncoin, presently trades round $2.93. The coin has pulled in over $128 million in day by day quantity, with a complete market cap sitting at $7.2 billion.
Toncoin’s Rise and Fall
TON and its token had a meteoric rise final summer season, thanks partly to viral mini apps like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat embedded straight inside Telegram. At its peak in October 2024, TON noticed over 1.4 million lively addresses. Right now, that quantity is nearer to 130,000, per The Block’s dashboard.
So whereas Durov battles authorized woes in France, the community he helped construct continues to ripple throughout the blockchain and messaging worlds—although how lengthy that momentum lasts could rely upon the result of his case.