PANews reported on August 26 that according to Bloomberg, the market value of digital assets of blockchain projects related to Telegram Messenger LLP has shrunk by about $2.7 billion, reflecting the uncertainty caused by the detention of Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov. Pavel Durov was reportedly detained at the Paris airport on Saturday for allegedly failing to take measures to prevent Telegram from being used by criminals. Since then, The Open Network's token Toncoin (TON) has fallen by more than 20%.
TON pared some of its losses to trade at $5.69 as of 10:36 a.m. Singapore time on Monday, but the asset was still down 16% as the Durov incident unfolded, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Richard Galvin, co-founder of hedge fund DACM, which bought TON tokens in a private round in early 2023, said it was "too early" to tell what long-term impact Durov's detention would have on Telegram. He added that the market reaction over the weekend "has temporarily factored this uncertainty into the TON price."
Data from DefiLlama shows that the value of assets locked in the TON blockchain surged this year to a peak of $1.1 billion last month, but the figure has now fallen back to $661 million. According to Coingecko data, the price of Toncoin has more than tripled in the past year, and the token's market value is currently around $14.4 billion.
