Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been allegedly arrested in France on charges related to his operation of the social messaging platform, according to unconfirmed claims on social media and unverified media reports.
Durov was arrested when his plane landed at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, according to reports. He is said to face charges of terrorism, trafficking, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and other charges.
Coincidentally, the Supreme People's Court and the Procuratorate of China revised their interpretation of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, adding "virtual asset" transactions for the first time. At a meeting on August 19, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate stated that according to the Supreme Court's new interpretation of the law, "virtual asset" transactions are now listed as one of the recognized methods of money laundering. As soon as the report came out, there were complaints about this interpretation at home and abroad. In fact, this time France's move against the big crypto players has truly confirmed that virtual assets do have another side of criminal attributes, and they must also be strictly regulated! !
Durov was reportedly arrested on a private plane taking off from Azerbaijan.
French commercial television network TF1 cited unnamed sources close to the matter as saying that "the search warrant will only be valid if and only if Pavel Durov is on state territory."
The report also stated that Durov did not travel frequently within Europe and avoided countries where "Telegram was monitored."
As reported, the TON cryptocurrency developed by Telegram has fallen by more than 10% from a high of $6.86 earlier on August 24 to $5.85 at the time of writing.
Toncoin (TON) has fallen 9.29% over the past seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap Source: CoinMarketCap
Several prominent figures around the world have publicly commented on these reports.
"Do you understand the severity of what is happening? Pavel Durov truly believed in free speech and created a platform that the deep state couldn't access, so now they've arrested him," declared American commentator Candace Owens.
“Pavel Durov sitting in a French jail tonight is a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intelligence agencies,” Fox News TV host Tucker Carlson told his 13.6 million followers in an Aug. 24 post.
More recently, Durov told Carlson on his podcast in April that he predicted increased government surveillance would force the creation of secure communications devices inspired by cryptocurrency hardware wallets.
Durov announced in July that Telegram’s user base had recently surpassed the 950 million mark, with the recent surge in users coinciding with the rise of crypto games that can be played on the messaging app via integrated “mini-apps.” The largest of these, Hamster Kombat, has reportedly amassed more than 300 million players in the months leading up to its upcoming token launch and airdrop.
The Open Network was originally created internally at Telegram, but the company abandoned the project in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny. Development has continued externally through a community of contributors, and over the past year, Telegram has increasingly embraced and integrated blockchain networks.
“The world is becoming less friendly. Governments are becoming less tolerant of privacy,” Durov explained.
“That’s clearly the way it’s going to go, because they have more technological power,” he added.
After the launch time ended, TON released an official statement on X, but did not provide any specific details about the investigation.
“Following the recent news regarding Telegram founder Pavel Durov, we want to reassure everyone that the TON community remains strong and fully operational,” TON on X said.
"As a community committed to free speech and decentralization, we stand firmly with Pavel during this challenging time," it added.
