TON blockchain stablecoin supply increases by 25% since Pavel’s arrest

According to Artemis, stablecoin supply on the TON blockchain has increased by over 20% since Pavel Durov’s arrest on August 24. The surge in total stablecoin supply increased 13-fold since April after USDT’s integration into the chain.  

Data from Artemis revealed that the TON blockchain showed signs of life weeks after Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Chief Executive officer, was arrested in France. The data indicated the stablecoin total market supply on TON had significantly increased since April after the integration of USDT.

TON blockchain shows renewed growth weeks after Pavel’s arrest 

The TON blockchain experienced a tumultuous few weeks after Pavel Durov’s arrest in August regarding criminal activities on the messaging application Telegram. Durov was key in integrating Toncoin, TON’s native coin, into Telegram. 

His arrest reportedly caused panic among traders, and as such, Toncoin also experienced a 20% decline to $5 and a 30% plummet in TVL.

Matthew Graham, the founder of Venture Capital firm Ryze Labs, highlighted that despite TON and Telegram not being the same, Pavel played a vital role in both. The CEO was released shortly after the arrest, where he referred to it as “misguided” and vowed to prevent abusers from interfering with the platform.

However, a few weeks after his release, TON blockchain stablecoin supply indicated gradual signs of renewed growth. According to CryptoQuant, USDT’s supply on the chain increased to over $700 million, illustrating the widespread adoption of the stablecoin. 

Data from Bitget illustrated that trading volumes on the TON ecosystem have also significantly increased since earlier this year. Anatoly Makasov, Technical Lead at TON Foundation, confirmed that the trading volume had surpassed 1.3 billion transactions within the first week of September. 

New Telegram additions fail to pump Toncoin price   

The increase in stablecoin supply reportedly emanated from the Telegram community, which currently has over 900 million users. The rise in trading volumes could also be linked to on-chain games like Hamster Kombat. The on-chain games also have free airdrops that reportedly enticed new users. 

Durov revealed new features in an announcement on his Telegram channel on October 5. The CEO stated the messaging app would allow users to send gifts to friends. He added that some gifts would be limited, and users could soon convert the gifts to TON-based NFTs.

In the post, he stated:

“Gifts are a great way to congratulate your loved ones on important events. Gift recipients can choose to display them on their profiles or sell them for Star.”

– Pavel Durov

Telegram also announced various other changes, such as rebuilding video chats on iOS for better battery performance. 

Despite the new features, Toncoin has not shown a significant recovery in price performance and has remained at the $5 mark. At the time of writing, Toncoin is trading at $5.22, a 1.14% decline in the past 24 hours. According to Coinmarketcap , the coin has experienced a 2.6% decline in the last 7 days.