Telegram CEO Reveals Ownership of ‘Some Bitcoin and Some TonCoin’

Pavel Durov says Telegram is near profitability compared to rival Twitter and Snap.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov disclosed that he holds bitcoin, the largest crypto by market capitalization, and Toncoin (TON), which is independent from Telegram.

The CEO also bought a quarter of new Telegram bonds issued by the company.

Telegram Issues $270 Million Bonds
In a post on his official Telegram channel on Tuesday (July 18, 2023), Pavel Durov highlighted the growth of the instant messaging platform, stating that the app recorded over 800 million monthly active users earlier in the year, with over 2.5 million new daily signups.

While the platform is yet to hit profit, Durov claimed that his company is “closer to profitability in absolute numbers than its competitors such as Twitter and Snap.”

Durov also announced that his company issued Telegram bonds worth $270 million this week to fund growth and attempt to break even. While the CEO did not mention the investors in the bond, saying instead that they are “well-known funds with stellar reputations,” the Telegram chief said he purchased a quarter of the bonds as a way of investing in the platform’s growth.

According to Durov, his latest investment is in addition to the “hundreds of millions” he injected into Telegram over the last decade to keep the messaging app running.

Durov Holds Bitcoin and Toncoin
The CEO further disclosed that owns two assets – Bitcoin and Toncoin, without stating how much he holds.

Toncoin is a rebrand of the original TON (Telegram Open Network) blockchain project that was developed by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Shortly before TON was scheduled to launch in October 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Telegram, causing the team to halt the project.

While Telegram stopped support for TON, the company made its code open source, enabling the community to take over the initiative.

“Some people suggested I should have instead bought a house or a jet. But I prefer to stay focused on my work without owning anything (well, apart from Telegram, some Bitcoin, and some Toncoin).”

Telegram recently added a new feature that would allow users to buy, swap, and carry out peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions USDT on the Tron network. Durov earlier said that the messaging platform is planning to build non-custodial wallets and a decentralized exchange to prevent another “FTX collapse” from happening.