telegram

According to the "News" report, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) recently arrested three Telegram investment channel owners, accusing them of manipulating stock prices through a "Pump&Dump" strategy, involving over 55,000 illegal transactions related to 19 large companies on the Moscow Exchange.Research from Moscow State University shows that 11% of Telegram investment signals can have a substantial impact on stock returns, with over 60% of private investors relying on such signals to make decisions. The Central Bank of Russia stated that it will continue to monitor abnormal trading and warned that "punishment is inevitable" for illegal bloggers. Experts remind that manipulative signals are often presented in emotional language, promise quick profits, and do not disclose risks; investors should prioritize consulting licensed advisors.

According to Cointelegraph, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov called WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption a "huge consumer fraud." He pointed out that about 95% of private messages ultimately end up stored in unencrypted backups on Apple and Google servers.Durov believes that this situation puts users' privacy at risk. Although WhatsApp claims that its message transmission process uses end-to-end encryption, the actual backup mechanism fails to ensure the complete encryption of user information. This statement has raised industry concerns about the privacy protection measures of mainstream messaging applications.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated that The Open Network (TON) has completed a major upgrade, increasing block generation speed by 6 times, overall performance improved by about 10 times, and transaction confirmation time has been reduced to sub-second levels, achieving a "near-instant" transaction experience.TON officials stated that this upgrade is based on Catchain 2, and the previous confirmation time of about 10 seconds limited instant payments and application response experiences, while this upgrade will make it possible to "complete payments like sending messages." In addition, TON also stated that higher block generation frequency will enhance validator earnings and strengthen staking incentives. Pavel Durov called this upgrade the first step of the "Make TON Great Again" seven-step plan, with the next phase aiming to further reduce transaction fees by about 6 times.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated on social media, "The TON blockchain has just completed an upgrade, and now the speed has increased by 10 times. The block generation speed has increased by 6 times, and transactions now achieve instant, sub-second confirmations. This is the first step in the 'Make TON Great Again (MTONGA)' seven-step plan. The next step is to reduce the already low transaction fees by another 6 times."

Telegram's built-in encrypted wallet "Wallet in Telegram" announces the launch of perpetual contract trading, with technical support from Lighter. It supports over 50 markets, including metals, stocks, oil, and cryptocurrency with leverage up to 50 times.

The South Korean police are investigating a series of revenge attack cases funded by cryptocurrency. Suspects accept payments of $300-600 in cryptocurrency from anonymous employers via Telegram to vandalize and defame target residences.In a recent case in Hwaseong City, a suspect in his 20s, Lim, spray-painted the victim's front door with red paint, scattered food waste, and smeared human excrement in the stairwell. South Korean police believe that a group claiming to be a private revenge organization is active on Korean Telegram channels. A similar phenomenon has been observed in Russia, where intermediaries offer customized revenge services through cryptocurrency and Telegram, charging up to $1,500, primarily using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for transactions to maintain anonymity.

According to The Block, Telegram's embedded crypto wallet TON Wallet has announced the launch of on-chain yield options for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT holders. Users can deposit assets into the "vault" to participate in on-chain strategies aimed at generating variable returns.Among them, the USDT strategy can achieve an annualized return of up to 18%, supported by the Re7 DeFi strategy; the ETH and BTC vaults extend the yield functionality to the two major cryptocurrencies. This feature is implemented through TON Wallet, with integration from Morpho, TAC, and Re7.

According to ForkLog, several Russian media outlets cited information from the country's Federal Security Service stating that Telegram founder Pavel Durov is under criminal investigation for allegedly assisting terrorist activities, in accordance with Article 205.1, Clause 1.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (assisting terrorist activities).The investigation involves the dissemination of illegal content, with accusations that the platform's administrators ignored requests from the Russian communications regulator to delete banned channels and chats, and that Telegram has been used for criminal activities and for publishing materials from extremist and terrorist organizations.The Russian communications regulator began restricting the service in the summer of 2025 due to an increase in fraudulent activities, and in February 2026, it intensified "traffic limiting" measures on the grounds that the platform was not complying with Russian laws. Durov responded at the time by stating that "Telegram defends freedom of speech and privacy."

According to Bloomberg, Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor plans to restrict access to Telegram starting Tuesday. The report cites unnamed sources as saying that measures to slow down access to Telegram have already been implemented.

According to Cointelegraph, the TON Foundation has released a payment software development kit (SDK) called TON Pay, aimed at enabling cryptocurrency to be used for everyday consumer transactions within the Telegram ecosystem. The product is positioned as a simple, wallet-agnostic payment layer that allows merchants and app developers to accept cryptocurrency payments directly through Telegram, with the goal of transforming Telegram into a seamless blockchain commerce hub.The TON Foundation stated that TON Pay provides developers with a single software toolkit integrated with Telegram mini-apps, reducing the cumbersome aspects of managing wallet infrastructure, settlement, and checkout processes.

According to a report by TheDefiant, blockchain forensics company Chainalysis has released a report stating that Chinese networks account for about 20% of the total $82 billion in cryptocurrency laundering activities in 2025, primarily operating on Telegram and related "guarantee" platforms. In 2025 alone, Chinese laundering networks processed over $16 billion in funds, equivalent to about $44 million per day, involving approximately 1,800 active wallets.

According to Arkham data, at 02:59, 5 million TON (worth approximately 7.7 million USD) was transferred from Telegram to Channel Rewards.

The TON token treasury company AlphaTON Capital Corp has signed a $46 million computing infrastructure agreement to purchase 576 NVIDIA B300 chips to expand the decentralized Telegram native AI platform Cocoon. This transaction includes $4 million in cash, $32.7 million in financing, and $9.3 million in equity.Cocoon is built on the TON blockchain, allowing users to rent GPU processing platform demand and earn Toncoin rewards. It is positioned as a privacy-focused decentralized AI alternative, unlike large tech platforms such as Google Gemini or OpenAI ChatGPT. The chips are expected to be delivered in February.

The chairman of the board of TONX, a company listed on NASDAQ, Manuel Stotz, stated that all TON sold by Telegram has a four-year vesting period. In addition, the main buyer of the tokens sold by Telegram is his company, TONX, which is intended for long-term holding and staking.The Financial Times previously reported that Telegram's revenue in the first half of the year reached $870 million, a 65% year-on-year increase, partly due to the TON ecosystem; the company has sold over $450 million in TON, but Stotz emphasized that Telegram's net TON holdings have not significantly decreased and may even have increased.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted on the X platform on January 7, responding to the recent FUD surrounding Telegram. Durov stated that Telegram has no connection to Russia in its capital structure, and that there were "absolutely no Russian investors" involved in its recent $1.7 billion bond issuance.He further pointed out that the old debt issued by Telegram in 2021 has been largely repaid and does not pose a current risk. He also emphasized that bondholders are not equivalent to company shareholders, and that he remains the sole shareholder of Telegram, with no direct relationship between bonds and equity.

According to Cointelegraph, Telegram's revenue in the first half of 2025 reached $870 million, a 65% increase year-on-year, with approximately $300 million coming from "exclusive agreements" related to Toncoin. However, due to Toncoin's value plummeting by 69% this year, the company was forced to write down the value of its cryptocurrency holdings, resulting in a net loss of over $220 million. Additionally, Telegram's $500 million bonds in Russia have been frozen due to Western sanctions. Despite the challenges, Telegram still plans to achieve its annual revenue target of $2 billion and is considering an IPO after progress in CEO Durov's investigation in France. The company has sold approximately $450 million of Toncoin, accounting for about 10% of its market value.

According to the Financial Times, Telegram's $500 million bonds in Russia have been frozen by the national settlement depository due to Western sanctions against Russia, despite founder Pavel Durov's efforts to distance himself from Moscow.This move poses obstacles to its debt buyback and raises concerns among investors. Telegram still plans to repay the related debt on schedule, and its recent half-year revenue has increased by 65% year-on-year to $870 million, but it has incurred a net loss of $222 million due to the depreciation of Toncoin. Telegram is pushing for the integration of the Ton ecosystem and preparing for an IPO.