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TON Surges 20% as Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Recovers Passport From French Authorities

Telegram founder Pavel Durov regained access to his passport, allowing him to travel freely.

By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf

Mar 15, 2025, 4:45 p.m.

What to know:

French authorities have returned Pavel Durov’s passport, allowing him to travel freely.
The TON Foundation sees this as a win for free speech and digital privacy.
Telegram, founded by Durov, serves nearly a billion users globally.

The price of TON has surged more than 20% over the last 24 hours to now trade above $3.45 and have a $8.14 billion market capitalization after French authorities returned Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s passport.

The move restores Durov’s ability to travel freely and marks the end of a situation that had drawn concerns from privacy and free speech advocates. Durov, who co-founded Telegram, a messaging platform with nearly a billion users, has long been an outspoken advocate for privacy and secure communication.

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The TON Foundation, which supports the Telegram Open Network (TON), celebrated the moment on social media. “As part of the decentralized TON community, we have stood in solidarity with Pavel, supporting his unwavering dedication to defending the right to free speech and privacy online.“

TON has also benefited from new features introduced to the Wallet app on Telegram, which include multiple assets, a yield program, an updated user interface, and more.

Telegram TON Pavel Durov

Francisco Rodrigues

Francisco is a reporter for CoinDesk with a passion for cryptocurrencies and personal finance. Before joining CoinDesk he worked at major financial and crypto publications. He owns bitcoin, ether, solana, and PAXG above CoinDesk's $1,000 disclosure threshold.