Latest Pavel Durov News and Insights | Yellow.com

The crypto market took a nosedive. But Toncoin (TON) managed to keep its head above water. The TON blockchain restarted after a five-hour outage. It had been down due to the popularity of the DOGS airdrop. This airdrop was part of a campaign to support Pavel Durov. Durov's arrest sent shockwaves through the crypto world. The Telegram founder was nabbed by Russian authorities last week. They accused him of "undermining national security" through his messaging app. It's a charge that could see him behind bars for up to 20 years. The crypto market's reaction was swift and brutal. Investors panicked, fearing increased government crackdowns on digital assets. TON, closely associated with Telegram, initially took a hit. But it's showing surprising resilience. Some speculate it's due to a "Streisand effect" - the arrest inadvertently boosting interest in TON. TON's losses were less than 1%. Meanwhile, the broader market tanked. The CoinDesk 20 index plummeted over 6.5%. Bitcoin led the market slide. It dropped 6%. This triggered a massive $300 million in crypto futures liquidations. It's the highest since August 5. Other major coins followed suit. Ether, Solana, Cardano, and Dogecoin all fell more than 5%. XRP showed some resilience, dropping only 3.4%. Ether futures saw the biggest hit. They racked up $102 million in liquidations. Bitcoin wasn't far behind at $96 million. The dump coincided with outflows from U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs. They saw over $127 million walk out the door on Tuesday. This ended an eight-day inflow streak. Augustine Fan from SOFA chimed in. "Traders scrambled to buy downside protection," she said. "The underlying momentum remains poor." AI tokens, which had been riding high on Nvidia hype, also took a beating. NEAR dropped 10%, while ICP fell 6.5%. Katie Stockton from Fairlead Strategies weighed in. "Sentiment around AI has definitely shifted," she noted. She expects increased volatility ahead. On a brighter note, Hong Kong's Hex Trust launched a staking partner program. It's a sign that institutional interest in crypto isn't dead yet.

Telegram, the crypto-friendly messaging app, has launched an in-app browser. It supports decentralized websites. The browser works on mobile and desktop. Telegram announced this on July 31. They call these decentralized websites "TON Sites". They run on The Open Network. The move aims to make Web3 accessible to Telegram's user base. The app boasts nearly one billion monthly users. Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, commented on the launch. He said the browser lets users switch between viewing websites and messaging. It merges communication with news consumption. The company also rolled out its Mini App store. This launch was expected before July's end. Users can now send "Stars" to friends. These are units in the Mini App payment system. Mini Apps are hugely popular on Telegram. Over 500 million users interact with them monthly. That's more than half of Telegram's user base. One standout Mini App is Hamster Kombat. It's a crypto game that's only four months old. Yet it's already hit 300 million players. Users tap a hamster to earn tokens and upgrade a virtual crypto exchange. Another popular app is Catizen. It's a Web3 social entertainment platform. Durov says it's made $16 million from in-app purchases since March. About $160,000 of that has gone to rescuing stray cats. Both these apps use Toncoin, The Open Network's native cryptocurrency. Toncoin's value has shot up 467% in the past year. It's now worth $6.78. The Open Network is seeing other developments too. The TON Core team recently launched a new smart wallet standard. It promises gasless transactions. This could make crypto more accessible to newbies. Oleg Andreev, CEO of Tonkeeper, spoke about this new feature. He said it lets new users engage with TON's ecosystem without needing Toncoin first. It's a big step in bringing crypto to the masses. In a nutshell, Telegram's making waves in the crypto world. With its massive user base and new features, it could be a real game-changer. But only time will tell if this gamble pays off.

Telegram’s “The Open Network” (TON) blockchain has been consistently outperforming Ethereum in terms of daily active addresses throughout this month, analysts say. Telegram, a popular messaging app, created by Russian emigrant Pavel Durov, is not only competing against WhatsApp and Signal, it's also making waves in crypto world. TON blockchain is now emerging as a serious competitor to Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum, a current king of blockchain solutions. According to a recent post on X from Delphi Digital, a prominent firm, TON’s daily active addresses have surpassed Ethereum. Analysts think this success can be attributed to Telegram’s colossal user base of 900 million. TON’s popularity relies on Telegram’s wide distribution, Delphi Digital concludes. Another analyst company, Artemis, has published their report, showing that TON and Ethereum have been closely competing in a number of daily transactions since May 17. That figure shows how many unique wallets were active on a given day. In June, TON was surpassing Ethereum on 10 out of the 11 days so far. There even was a day when TON reached a peak usage level, which Ethereum wasn't able to grasp since September 2023. That happened on June 3, when TON had a little over 568,000 transactions. Despite these impressive figures analysts say there is a need to consider the broader context. Direct comparison of TON and Ethereum might be unfair because of all the recent technological advances the latter has reached. Ethereum has many layer 2 solutions up and running now. A significant number of transactions have migrated there. And they can't be measured using traditional metrics mentioned above. Even without beating Ethereum, TON can celebrate a significant surge in popularity. Several factors to blame here. Integration of Tether (USDT) on TON is the most prominent of them. As well as raising user base of Notcoin, a "tap-to-earn" token.