- Pavel Durov has been granted permission by France to travel to Dubai for 14 days amid an ongoing criminal investigation.
- French authorities allege Telegram has been used for cybercrime, money laundering, and other illicit activity.
- Telegram’s blockchain project TON has seen explosive growth, though user activity has dipped since its 2024 peak.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has once again received permission from French authorities to leave the country—though just barely. The embattled CEO, still under investigation for alleged criminal activity tied to his messaging app, can travel only to Dubai for 14 consecutive days starting July 10, according to French outlet Le Monde.
This marks the second time since his August 2024 arrest that Durov has been allowed to leave France. Back in March, he was given a short window to visit Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered. But this isn’t just about business. Durov also cited personal reasons for needing to go—some of them pretty serious.
“I have a son who was just born and I’m missing the first months of his life. He still doesn’t have a passport, because I wasn’t present at his birth in Dubai,” Durov shared in an interview with Le Point. “I also have a teenage son in boarding school in Dubai who just broke his arm. No parent by his side. It’s tough.”
Under Fire in France
French investigators allege that Telegram—under Durov’s leadership—enabled a range of illegal activities, including distributing tools for encrypted communication, facilitating money laundering, and even hosting content involving minors. The National Anti-Fraud Office detained Durov last August as part of a sweeping cybercrime probe.
Despite the legal heat, Telegram continues to operate globally and remains particularly influential in the crypto space. It backs The Open Network (TON), a Layer 1 blockchain whose native token, Toncoin, currently trades around $2.93. The coin has pulled in over $128 million in daily volume, with a total market cap sitting at $7.2 billion.
Toncoin’s Rise and Fall
TON and its token had a meteoric rise last summer, thanks in part to viral mini apps like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat embedded directly within Telegram. At its peak in October 2024, TON saw over 1.4 million active addresses. Today, that number is closer to 130,000, per The Block’s dashboard.
So while Durov battles legal woes in France, the network he helped build continues to ripple across the blockchain and messaging worlds—though how long that momentum lasts may depend on the outcome of his case.
