Worrying news from Telegram for the crypto TON

Crypto news: yesterday the price of the cryptocurrency TON of Telegram suddenly lost 22%, dropping from $6.8 to $5.2 overnight.

The cause was a very bad piece of news coming from Telegram.

The trend of TON

After collapsing to $5.2, the price of TON then bounced back to almost $6, but subsequently seems to have momentarily stabilized around $5.7.

Note that since August 9 it seemed to have stabilized around $6.5, so the current value is 14% lower than the one around which it had been moving sideways for a couple of weeks. 

The most important thing, however, seems to be something else. 

In fact, on August 5, during the market crash crypto that brought the price of Bitcoin even below $50,000 for a brief moment, the price of TON had also fallen below $5, so yesterday’s crash was less severe compared to the one at the beginning of August.

Furthermore, considering the entire 2024, the current price of TON is still 140% higher than at the beginning of the year, even though it is -31% from the all-time high in June. 

But there is also more. 

After rising from $2 to over $7 between February and early April of this year, the price of TON had already experienced a significant drop between the second half of April and early May, which brought it well below $5. 

So during the course of 2024, after the end of the great bullrun of TON at the beginning of the year, three crashes have already occurred that brought it back below $6, of which the first two also brought it below $5, but yesterday’s did not. 

The cause of the collapse

The cause of yesterday’s crash is the news of Pavel Durov’s arrest.

Durov is the founder and current CEO of Telegram, the second largest messaging app in the world.

Although TON is theoretically a decentralized project, in reality, it is Telegram’s crypto project, without which it could never have achieved the milestones it has already reached. 

It should not be forgotten that TON has been steadily in the top 10 of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for a few months now, and even yesterday it did not drop out of this ranking despite the -22% in one night. 

The fact is that the events of TON are closely linked to those of Telegram, but those of Telegram are not necessarily closely linked to those of Durov. 

The problem of TON

Pavel Durov is a Russian who, however, also has French and Emirati citizenship. 

Yesterday he landed in France, for reasons still not entirely clear, where an arrest warrant was pending against him. 

It was a national arrest warrant, not an international one, so it could only be executed in France. Durov had not returned to France for a long time, since the headquarters of Telegram has been in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for a while now, and as soon as he landed on French soil, he was arrested. 

The reason for his arrest does not concern TON, but concerns Telegram, however the specific accusations against him concern his administration policy of the platform, and not the platform itself. 

In fact, after an initial moment of dismay following the release of the news, the crypto markets not only contained the losses on TON, but also allowed it to recover part of the losses accumulated in the first hours after the release of the news. 

The problems of Telegram

What the French authorities contest to Durov is the lack of collaboration with the authorities. 

Telegram in fact has an internal policy of not moderating content. 

It is a legitimate policy, common also to other similar platforms, but that inevitably generates problems. 

The fact is that by allowing a high degree of freedom in publishing content, one inevitably ends up allowing the publication of illegal content as well. For example, those involving child pornography.

Let it be clear, this happens on all unmoderated public platforms, but what makes the difference in this case is the reaction of the managers. 

When illegal content is published, it is still necessary to intervene afterwards to remove it, upon notification, also providing the authorities with information about the perpetrators of the crime. It should be emphasized that publishing illegal content is a crime in every respect. 

The French authorities accuse the CEO of Telegram of not cooperating with the authorities by providing useful information to identify the criminals who publish illegal content on the platform. 

Privacy

A key point on which Telegram’s policy focuses is privacy and the protection of users’ information. 

This, for example, should imply that the company cannot have access to the information that users themselves disseminate privately through the platform. Obviously, this does not apply to information that is published openly.

In particular, there are Telegram channels that publish illegal content that are easily detectable by both the authorities and the company. In those cases, the company cannot claim that it cannot remove them for privacy reasons.

So according to the French authorities, the defense of Telegram does not hold. This is because they are in fact aware not only that there are those who publish illegal content on their platform, but they can also very easily see it and identify in which channels it has been published.

The real problem seems to be the refusal of Durov and Telegram to cooperate with the authorities to identify the authors of these crimes. 

It should be noted, however, that there are still no final convictions of Durov’s actions in France, and that the issue is still open. 

News: the future of Telegram and the crypto TON

At this moment many are wondering what the future of Telegram, and of TON, will be.

Given that other similar platforms do not have this type of problems, it is possible to imagine that if Telegram were to change its policy to align with that of other similar platforms that collaborate with the authorities, the problem could be resolved. 

This suggests quite clearly that the problem with Telegram is not at all unsolvable. In fact, perhaps it is just a matter of willingness to resolve it or not.

This cascading reasoning also applies to TON, where however there are no problems of this type. 

The fact, however, is that without Telegram TON could neither grow nor prosper, and it could not even maintain the current levels of utilization. 

Therefore, the concerns are legitimate. However, if the problem on telegram were to be resolved sooner or later, as many believe, the negative repercussions on TON would also disappear.

In fact, the collapse of the price of TON yesterday did not bring it back to the levels of early May. Moreover, in the following hours, it has already been partially recovered.

The position of Telegram

Yesterday on the official Telegram channel of the company, a post was published in which the company states that Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act. Furthermore, its moderation is in line with industry standards.

They also declare that the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide. 

On Durov’s channel, however, no post has been published after August 14. However, it is likely that being under arrest, he is prohibited from communicating publicly.

It should be remembered, however, that the statements of the accused always leave a bit to be desired, especially in cases where they deny the accusations. 

Nevertheless, it is necessary once again to emphasize that Durov has not yet been convicted, but only indicted. It will probably be necessary to wait a little longer before understanding what the French justice thinks about it. 

The reaction of the crypto world to the news on Telegram (TON)

Many within the crypto world have reacted by supporting Durov and Telegram. 

However, in many cases, it is a biased reaction, obviously, which is countered by another reaction, from the opposite side, by many detractors of Telegram or Durov. 

Among the supporters, the hypothesis is circulating that the attack on Telegram is an attempt to limit freedom of expression, or censorship. While among the detractors, the hypothesis is circulating that Telegram is a tool of pro-Russian propaganda.

Both of these reactions do not seem objective, also because neither of them addresses the real underlying problem for which the French authorities arrested Durov. That is, the lack of cooperation with the authorities to identify the culprits of the publication of illegal content on the platform. Including, for example, pedopornographic images and videos.

Among the supporters, the idea of the usual Justin Sun stands out. He wrote on his official X profile that the crypto sector should show unity by organizing a DAO called FreePavel to help the founder of Telegram legally obtain freedom.

Sun himself has declared that he will donate one million dollars to the DAO if it is created in a decentralized manner and with sufficient community support.