Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov is an entrepreneur born in 1984 in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). He is known as the co-founder of the social network VKontakte (launched in 2006) and the founder of the Telegram messenger (2013). Since 2014 he has lived outside Russia and holds multiple passports, including those of Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and France (granted in 2021 under the country’s extraordinary-merit clause). His usual place of residence is Dubai, UAE, where a significant part of the Telegram team is based.

TON: launch and exit

In early 2018 the Telegram team announced the Telegram Open Network (TON) — its own blockchain platform with a native token called Gram. The project raised roughly 1.7 billion U.S. dollars through two rounds of private SAFT placements, then among the largest token sales in crypto history.

In 2019 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Telegram, arguing that Gram qualified as a security and its issuance violated U.S. securities laws. After several months of litigation, in 2020 Telegram officially withdrew from the project, returned the bulk of the funds to investors, and paid a settlement to the SEC.

The TON codebase, however, had been published as open source. A group of independent community developers picked up the network and continued it under the name The Open Network, preserving the architecture but launching a new token, Toncoin. The TON Foundation operates legally independent from Telegram.

Current role in the ecosystem

Since 2020 Durov and Telegram have not formally governed TON, but they remain strategically linked through product integrations:

• Wallet — the in-app crypto wallet inside Telegram (originally custodial; available to most users).
• Toncoin as currency for Telegram services — payments for subscriptions, ads, and premium features.
• USDT on TON (since 2024) — an official Tether-TON partnership amplified through Durov’s Telegram channel.
• Telegram Stars — Telegram’s internal accounting unit, partly interoperating with the TON ecosystem.
• Durov’s public posts in his channel regularly mention TON and ecosystem partner products.

This link makes Telegram the largest funnel for TON mini-apps and wallets and is one of the reasons the network saw multiple-fold growth during 2023-2024.

Arrest in France

On 24 August 2024, Durov was detained in France at Le Bourget airport upon arrival from Azerbaijan. French prosecutors brought charges related to the alleged insufficient moderation of illegal content on Telegram (including drug-related material and child sexual exploitation content) and the failure to provide data to law enforcement under formal requests. Telegram has rejected the allegations and stated that it complies with EU law.

Durov was released under judicial supervision on a 5 million euro bail and barred from leaving France; restrictions were eased in part in early 2025. The case is ongoing and no final ruling on the merits has been issued at the time of writing. Coverage was accompanied by a wider public debate about platform liability for user-generated content and the role of encryption.

Important context

Durov is a highly visible figure in crypto and tech, but legally the TON Foundation is an independent non-profit based in Switzerland. Marketing activities flagged as “TON” inside Telegram may originate from the Telegram team (including Durov personally) or from the Foundation; product decisions about the network — protocol upgrades, grants, partnerships — are typically driven by the Foundation.