The popular messaging app Telegram, led by CEO Pavel Durov who was arrested on August 24, had reportedly held $400 million in digital assets by the end of 2023, as per the company’s financial statement for that year.
At the end of 2023, Telegram reported having approximately four million premium users, a figure that has since increased to over five million. Despite its growing user base, Telegram experienced an operating loss of $108 million for the year, while generating $342.5 million in revenue. According to a report by the Financial Times, around 40% of Telegram’s revenues were derived from digital asset-related activities, categorized as “integrated wallet” and “sale of collectibles.”
Statista notes that Telegram earned $11.66 million in in-app revenue in the first two months of 2024 alone, amassing over $4 billion since its inception.
The Financial Times detailed that Telegram’s “integrated wallet” is a software that allows users to manage crypto assets—storing, sending, receiving, and trading them. As for the “sale of collectibles,” Telegram’s financial statement indicates that the company sells various items like usernames and virtual phone numbers to its users and facilitates user-to-user transactions of these collectibles, earning a fee for the service.
Statista further reports that India was the leading country for Telegram downloads in 2023, with 83.85 million users, while the United States ranked third with 29.92 million downloads.
Following Durov’s arrest after landing at Le Bourget airport in Paris, the cryptocurrency associated with Telegram, Toncoin (TON), saw a surge in trading activity. Future traders hedged their bets on the asset’s price following the arrest.
As of the latest, TON was trading at about $5.30, marking a decrease of over 21% from roughly $6.70 over the past week, according to CoinMarketCap. Its market capitalization also experienced a nearly 2% decline to $13.42 billion.
Despite the recent price drops and changing market sentiments, several technical and market analyses suggest that TON may be positioned for a recovery. Should the market view Durov’s arrest as an isolated event not fundamentally detrimental to the Toncoin ecosystem, traders might consider the current price dip as a potential buying opportunity amidst the ongoing uncertainty.
