Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s Arrest Has Sent This Crypto Spiking By 150% – What’s The Link?
By Benzinga
Telegram-linked blockchain project The Open Network (TON) expressed solidarity with Pavel Durov following his arrest by French authorities over the weekend.
What Happened: In a show of defiance, TON updated their logo and profile pictures on their official social channels to Resistance Dog – a global symbol for the fight against censorship and freedom through digital resistance.
The movement was started by Durov himself to safeguard data privacy and ensure Telegram users’ freedom of speech.
Interestingly, a memecoin, Resistance Dog (CRYPTO: REDO), which pays homage to this movement, shot up by 150% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
See Also: Donald Trump Launches Crypto Platform ‘The DeFiant Ones’ To Challenge Traditional Banking Systems
Why It Matters: REDO’s dramatic spike coincided with Toncoin’s (CRYPTO: TON) sharp decline.
TON, which is deeply integrated with the Telegram messaging platform, plummeted by more than 20% after Durov was arrested in France, wiping out nearly $3 billion of the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization has been wiped out in this period.
However, over the last seven days, Toncoin is down 14.80%.
Durov, a Russian-French billionaire, was apprehended on Saturday evening while traveling on his private jet. The arrest is linked to an ongoing police investigation in France, which is reportedly focused on the lack of moderators on Telegram, allowing criminal activity to persist on the platform.
Price Action: At the time of writing, TON was exchanging hands at $5.80, up 0.58% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Read Next:
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
