Telegram serves around 1 billion users monthly as a highly popular messaging app. However, France has arrested the app’s co-founder, Pavel Durov. Naturally, the rapidly growing TON Coin and its ecosystem have also been affected by this recent development. Tether CEO says we must fight.
Freedom of Expression and Pavel Durov
The US and EU countries demand certain privileges from all popular apps. There are 208 countries in the world, and only a few can have these privileges. For example, sharing user information when necessary is one such privilege, which significantly impacts freedom of expression.
For instance, cyber attacks on state institutions of country X can be seen as freedom of expression by the EU, while any attempt to commit a crime in an EU country necessitates access to your information.
A similar situation occurred with the Tornado mixer process. The co-founder Pertsev, who was told he should be arrested because criminals use crypto mixers, received a 64-month prison sentence. However, there were also those who used the same application due to data privacy concerns, just like not all 1 billion Telegram users are criminals.
Tether CEO and figures like Elon Musk condemned France’s actions. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote:
“Pavel Durov’s arrest for ensuring freedom of expression through Telegram is very concerning. If we lose the fight to defend freedom of expression and communication as a society, nothing else will matter, and dark ages will be our future.”
TON Coin Current Status
Recently, one of the market makers of TON Coin sold nearly 2 million dollars worth of assets in just 4 hours. This led to a price drop. Yesterday, the TON Coin price spiked to 5.25 dollars, a level last seen during the week the markets crashed. Now, the price is hovering at 5.63 dollars.
The only apparent issue for TON Coin is the potential sanction risks Telegram might face. Once the process is clarified, the extent to which TON Coin will be affected will become clear, and price fluctuations will likely continue.
