Russian officials are upset over the arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, at Paris’s Le Bourget airport.
The Russian Embassy in France has criticized French authorities for not providing information about the arrest and denying consular access. They are working with Durov’s lawyer but have received little cooperation.
Some Russian officials see the arrest as a deliberate act against Russia. There is debate over Durov’s citizenship, with conflicting reports about whether he holds French and Russian or French and UAE citizenship.
French officials are expected to address the arrest soon. Durov may face charges related to Telegram’s content moderation, including money laundering and inappropriate material, though no prison sentence details have been confirmed.
Telegram has defended Durov, asserting that the platform follows EU laws and that Durov frequently travels in Europe without issues.
In response to the arrest, notable figures in the crypto world, such as Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin, have shown their support for Durov.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has spotlighted a significant acceleration in institutional crypto adoption, driven largely by the surging popularity of exchange-traded funds and increased use of Coinbase Prime among major corporations.
Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos believes an upcoming power shift at the Federal Reserve could benefit U.S. equity markets.
Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto custody bank, is urging its institutional clients to move away from major stablecoins like USDC, Agora USD (AUSD), and Usual USD (USD0), recommending instead a shift to the Global Dollar (USDG) — a stablecoin issued by Paxos and backed by a consortium that includes Anchorage itself.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has voiced concerns over the rise of zero-knowledge (ZK) digital identity projects, specifically warning that systems like World — formerly Worldcoin and backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — could undermine pseudonymity in the digital world.