Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Paris Le Bourget Airport on August 24, 2024. The arrest occurred the moment Pavel Durov left his private jet as a search warrant was issued by authorities.

Circulating rumors around different social media platforms such as X claim that the arrest was made by the French Secret Service. Pavel Durov was arrested at 8:00 p.m as stated by local reports. He was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman at the time of his arrest, as reported by French outlet TF1 Info.

The reasons for the arrests remain unclear as no further information has been provided on the motivations or the charges made for the arrest. This poses some worry about the potential implications for Durov and for both Telegram and TON

Following the arrest, The Open Network (TON), a Layer-1 blockchain on Telegram, saw a sharp decline by falling 14% within the first hour of Pavel’s arrest.

Pavel and Nikolai Durov  are prominent figures in the technology and media sectors. Both brothers founded Telegram in 2013 and has since continued to build on the platform and introduced The Open Network (TON) as Telegram’s native layer-1 blockchain. Both Telegram and TON has gained significant global traction since its inception and has a user base of up to 900 million people.

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