- Telegram’s CEO vowed to improve the app following his August arrest in France.
- Cryptocurrency TON has bounced back from declines following the app chief’s statement.
- Pavel Durov aims to “significantly improve” app as authorities claim he didn’t do enough to curb illegal activity.
After almost two weeks of declines, Toncoin, the cryptocurrency closely associated with the messaging app Telegram, has rebounded.
The token, which trades under the TON ticker, surged almost 7% over the past 24 hours to $4.89, according to CoinGecko. The move follows a statement from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov — his first since his arrest on August 24.
The French government detained Durov for his app’s alleged failure to crackdown on illicit activity on the platform.
Toncoin is down almost 28% from the day of the arrest, when French authorities detained Durov for his app’s alleged failure to crack down on illicit activity on the platform.
“The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue,” wrote Durov. “We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day.”
He added that he’s made it a “personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things.”
‘Some optimism’
Ajay Dhingra, head of research and analytics at Unizen, a DeFi protocol that aggregates prices from other exchanges, attributed part of Toncoin’s recent surge to Durov’s public commitment to clean up Telegram.
That has “instilled some optimism,” he told DL News.
Hong Yea, a former trader at Goldman Sachs and the co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange GRVT, echoed Dhingra’s analysis.
“TON’s price is likely to closely mirror developments from the French authorities, any actions taken by Durov, and any measures implemented by TON or Telegram,” he said.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin has fallen 2.2% over the last 24 hours to $55,796.
Ethereum has fallen 2.2% over the same period to $2,349.
Toncoin is currently up 3% to trade at $4.78 after reaching a high of $4.89.
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Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.