Price Drop and Leadership Vacuum

• TON crashed massively after the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov. 
• The open interest for Toncoin has surged 80%, suggesting that the volatility might remain high.
• Durov might remain in custody until August 28th.

Toncoin (TON), a top-ten cryptocurrency, has seen a notable price drop following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France. Telegram has significantly backed The Open Network and collaborated with the blockchain on numerous occasions.

Even with support from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Durov could remain in French custody until August 28th, potentially leaving Telegram, and by extension The Open Network and its native token TON, without clear leadership. The billionaire was arrested on charges including money laundering and refusal to communicate with authorities.

As per the data from CoinMarketCap, Toncoin has plunged 5.73% in the past 24 hours and is trading at a price tag of $5.37 at the time of writing. The altcoin is down 21.77% in the past week and 17.92% in the last 30 days with TON moving from a low of $4.89 to a high of $7.25. Toncoin witnessed its all-time high in $8.24 and is trading 34.67% lower from the ATH.

In a post on X, blockchain analysis platform CryptoQuant noted that the blockchain, including the master and workchains, are producing blocks normally, which indicates the network is functioning as usual.

Further, open interest jumped from roughly $200 million to $360 million, an 80% increase, suggesting the current trend could persist as the market experiences liquidations and investors exit.

The daily chart below shows that the accumulation of the token has massively risen and there are chances of a rebound in the near future as well. The gradient of the line suggests that there is a possibility of a reversal soon.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) of the TON token reads a value of 37.61 which confirms that the selling pressure of the altcoin is quite high and the gradient of the line suggests that higher prices are possible.