Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been released from French police custody to appear in court, where he could face charges, according to AP News.
The move comes after Durov was arrested in France on August 24 in connection with providing cryptographic tools and services (such as Telegram) to criminals for money laundering, child pornography and drug trafficking, as part of a broader cybercrime investigation.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that between 2017 and 2018, Durov met with French President Emmanuel Macron to move Telegram to France and grant Durov French citizenship, as well as allegations that French spies worked with the United Arab Emirates to hack Durov’s phone.
Early Wednesday, Telegram’s blockchain platform, The Open Network (TON), went down for about six hours but has since resumed block production. According to The Block’s pricing page, the native token, Toncoin, was trading at $5.53 after rising 1.25% over the last 24 hours.
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About the Author
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020, joining just before Bitcoin first broke $20,000. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering all aspects of crypto news but with a penchant for NFTs, metaverse, web3 games, fundraising, crime, hacking, and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from the Science, Health, and Environment Reporting Program (SHERP) at New York University and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.