On August 26, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at an airport in France and later produced in a local court. Durov was booked on criminal charges for an alleged lack of content moderation on Telegram channel and lack of cooperation with investigative agencies.Â
Although Durov was later released on bail after two days of police and judicial custody, his arrest made global headlines and caused many market disruptions in the crypto world. This is the influence the 39-year-old Russian tech wizard carries due to his long standing commitment to free speech and internet freedom.
Of late, Durov has found a new fan base on his Telegram platform, i.e. a dedicated section of lovers of play-to-earn crypto games on Telegram channels. With over 950 million users, Telegram has created over 200,000 groups to broadcast to an unlimited audience. However, introducing a tap-to-earn gaming platform hosted on Telegram increased the popularity, the platform’s use, and the audience’s trust in the application. From January to date, Telegram has hosted popular tap-to-earn games such as Tapswap, Notcoin, Blur, Hamster Kombat, Dotcoin, Yescoin, and many others operating on the TON ecosystem.
As a natural reaction to Durov’s arrest, there were several disruptions noticed in the crypto industry especially with TON Network tokens active on Telegram. In this article, we will discuss the market repercussions of Durov’s arrest and subsequent bail and the future potential of Telegram based Tap-to-Earn Tokens.
Pavel Durov Arrest: Impact on Crypto Markets
Following the arrest of Pavel Durov, Toncoin lost $2.7 billion in market value, which is 20% lower 24 hours after the news. Within 24 hours of the negative news, traders bet almost $70 million, causing TONNE’s open interest in future markets to jump 32%. Telegram’s tight historical ties to the Toncoin blockchain network have made Durov’s arrest detrimental to the price of TONNE. However, as of today, Toncoin price stands at $5.59 with a resistance trend.Â
Inspite of Durov’s news, the DOGS token seems to be experiencing an uptrend. It has soared 23% and reached a market cap of $789M.
8.2 million liquidations were made in the last 24 hours, with $3.82 million coming from long positions and $4.20 million from short positions. These numbers show how quickly and how volatile the DOGS market can swing.
Similarly, PAAL AI, one of the most popular Telegram coins, is also currently witnessing an uptrend of 13.1% with a price of $0.1963.
The token also stands at the top of the chart on top Telegram app coins by market cap.
Conclusion
While the arrest of the Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has impacted the crypto tokens, the listing of $DOGS seems to be pushing other tokens to show resilience with an upward trend. This incident also indicates the volatility in the crypto market and how susceptible they are to external forces.
