Toncoin (TON) has been bleeding hard this week, showing a record 13.8% decline since last Sunday, September 21. TON, the token which is often presented as Telegram ecosystem’s flagship coin, has tumbled in price significantly amid the crypto market turning volatile once again.
In the meantime, Bitcoin has itself faced major bearish pressure over the past week as it dropped by roughly 4% from a local peak of $113,800 to under $110,000 earlier this week. By today, the largest cryptocurrency has managed to rebound slightly, regaining 2.47% and climbing back above $112,000. The whole crypto market, including large-cap altcoins, is correlated with Bitcoin, following its price curve. TON’s correction has been one of the largest ones this time among major altcoins. Many are now debating whether the rally TON showed earlier this year had run out too quickly.
This TON price decline coincided with Pavel Durov’s recent Telegram statement made on the X social network regarding the recent elections in Moldova.
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TON tumbles as Telegram founder makes statement
The TON price crash aligned with an important tweet published by Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who made headlines in major global news outlets. On his X account, Durov shared the details of his encounter with the French intelligence last August, when he was detained in Paris upon arrival. He stated that the French intelligence reached out to him via an intermediary. They asked Durov to help the Moldovan government shut down several Telegram channels and do it ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in Moldova, according to his tweet.
Durov shared that the Telegram team reviewed the list of channels provided by French and Moldovan authorities and indeed shut down several ones, claiming they made definite violations of the platform’s rules and policies. Still, the situation escalated quickly as Durov revealed that the intermediary promised that the French authorities would talk to the judge in France in relation to Durov’s arrest in Paris.
“This was unacceptable on several levels,” Durov claimed, saying that if that had happened, it would have created a precedent of interfering with legal procedures. However, after that, Durov was given the second list of channels they wanted to be censored. Unlike the first list, Durov said that none of those channels had violated any of Telegram’s user policies but rather opposed the current French and Roman authorities. Durov refused to censor those channels, claiming that he was committed to protecting users and their freedom of speech on Telegram.
This was the first time Durov had revealed these details since his arrest and the release that followed last year in France. The fact that French intelligence attempted to use Durov to impact the Moldovan elections makes this saga even more complex. For the crypto community, this is a bright illustration of the continuous tension between decentralised technology platforms and governments’ attempts to take them under control.
Durov celebrates TON collectibles price surge but TON price still drops
This X post of Durov came out as Toncoin has been facing both enthusiasm and skepticism. Roughly two weeks earlier, on X, Durov proudly shared good news – TON chain-based collectibles surged in price. This sector of the TON network has recently been gaining traction and raising investor interest. Among the digital objects that saw the largest price spike was Durov’s cap, which jumped by 56.01%. Such collectibles as Precious Peach, Toy Bear, and Heroic Helmet soared by 70.53%, 68.9%, and 59.13%, respectively. In his tweet, Durov specified that this price surge had taken place within the past month: “Growth in the last 30 days.”
But that moment of joy and triumph was overshadowed by the sudden 13% price crash of Tonchain that happened during the past seven days. This decline has raised multiple questions from the community as to whether TON can maintain momentum in the always-volatile cryptocurrency market, where only the strongest assets survive.
That actual decline took place last week, when TON crashed by 13.86%. This week, it has been attempting to recover, but the maximum gain it managed to show was 4.31%. After that, TON went down again, falling by 2.47%.
Silver lining in the cloud
The first price collapse took place as the market faced a staggering $1.5 billion in liquidations across multiple crypto exchanges. Altcoin prices collapsed following Bitcoin. However, while BTC did not go down far, altcoins displayed a drastic price drop.
Still, despite the massive decline, the majority of the TON community is taking this price drop as temporary rather than any serious breakdown. TON still boasts a healthy and stable ecosystem with a tremendous user base, NFTs and other collectibles, decentralized apps, payments, blockchain games, etc. Therefore, many users continue to believe in TON as a profound blockchain platform that has a promising future as Telegram continues to expand, along with the utility of the TON blockchain.
