Author: Nancy, PANews
After Telegram and TON founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France, the TON ecosystem suffered a setback. The official launched a protest movement called "Resistance Dog", which received support from many parties and also led to a surge in the market value of the related MEME coin REDO. Although Durov still faces many uncertainties in legal adjustments, the spirit of resistance represented by REDO is resonating with the community.
Durov's hand-painted "Resistance Dog" becomes popular again, and the MEME coin REDO soars by more than 250%
After Durov was arrested and investigated in France, TON’s official Twitter account updated the Coingecko and social media logos to “Resistance Dog” and called on everyone to change their avatars to Resistance Dog in the tweet to join the global digital protest movement of Digital Resistance and Free Durov.
Subsequently, the movement received participation and support from people from all walks of life, including TON Foundation Chairman Steve Yun, who changed his Twitter profile picture to the Resistance Dog logo, some Binance pages also updated the TON logo, and Musk also released a video with the Free Pavel tag to once again support Durov.
Resistance Dog is a dog wearing a hoodie, and is also the embodiment of Durov, a liberal, and has appeared many times. For example, as early as 2011, when Russian security agencies asked VK, a social networking site created by Durov, to close the Russian protest page at the time, Durov responded with a photo of a puppy wearing a hoodie and sticking out its tongue to express his protest. This also became an opportunity for Durov to create Telegram to defend personal freedom and privacy.
According to reports, Resistance Dog was drawn and named by Durov himself in 2018. It symbolizes the struggle to defend personal privacy, information security and freedom through digital resistance. It is Telegram's unofficial mascot, aimed at maintaining user privacy and protecting freedom of speech.
The MEME coin REDO was created in January this year, and the popularity of Durov's arrest has soared again. According to Dex Screener data, the market value of REDO once exceeded 95.7 million US dollars, and the transaction volume in the past 24 hours reached 17 million US dollars. Since August 25, REDO has risen by nearly 254.5%. However, judging from the price trend after it went online in January this year, the current price of REDO is still more than 46.8% lower than the historical peak.
Market value and TVL shrunk significantly, and many companies disclosed that they increased their holdings of TON to show their support
French authorities are expected to issue a statement today (August 26) regarding Durov's arrest. According to French media reports, Durov may face charges related to Telegram's operations and the platform's lack of censorship. Following Durov's arrest, the Russian Embassy has contacted French authorities, requesting to meet with Durov and clarify details about his detention. Some Russian officials have called the arrest an indirect hostile act against Russia.
Telegram responded on its official X platform account that Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act, and its audits meet industry standards and are constantly improving. The platform said that Durov has nothing to hide and he travels frequently in Europe. Those who claim that "a platform or platform owner should be held responsible for abuse on the platform" are ridiculous. Nearly one billion users around the world use Telegram as a means of communication and an important source of information. The team is waiting for a quick resolution to this situation.
However, due to the continuous fermentation of Durov's arrest, the TON ecosystem has been impacted. According to CoinGecko data, since August 25, TON's circulating market value has shrunk by as much as $3.77 billion, and it once fell out of the top ten market value rankings. As of the time of writing, the price of TON has rebounded slightly by about 9.2% from its low point. And according to DeFiLlama data, the TVL on TON also fell sharply by more than 37% to $320 million in a single day, and has now rebounded to $390 million.
In response, many crypto leaders have increased their holdings of tokens to show their support. For example, Andrei Grachev, partner of DWF Labs, posted on the X platform that although he could not do much, he decided to do his best to provide support. He has purchased TON tokens worth about $500,000 on the open market and will keep them on the chain until Pavel Durov is released. This is not financial advice, but just to support decentralized technology. The Memeland team announced on Twitter that it has used $1 million of team treasury funds to buy TON on the open market and will hold it until Durov is released; Zhu Su, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, also posted on social media that he bought TON tokens at an average price of $5.8.
Regarding the future direction of TON, Richard Galvin, co-founder of hedge fund DACM, which participated in the private placement round of TON, said in an interview with Bloomberg that it is "too early" to judge the long-term impact of Durov's detention on Telegram, and the market reaction over the weekend "temporarily factored this uncertainty into the TON price."
CoinTelegraph reported that market analysis of some technical and market factors indicates that TON may rebound sharply in the coming weeks, and a similar situation has occurred on BNB. When news of legal disputes broke out, panic selling in the market was more likely, as traders would rush to protect their investments from potential impacts. However, once the initial shock subsided, the market would reassess the situation more rationally, and the same psychological pattern may also appear on TON.
