Crypto News This Week: Telegram CEO Arrested, TON Suffers Outages

This week’s crypto news roundup highlights the newest developments and trends in the cryptocurrency market.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested on August 25, 2024, at Le Bourget Airport in France. French authorities detained Durov based on allegations that his messaging platform facilitated various illegal activities, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Following the arrest, figures like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin publicly supported Durov, highlighting concerns about the broader implications for freedom of speech and privacy in the tech industry. Durov has been released on a €5 million bail but is required to stay in France.

Meanwhile, the Telegram-linked TON blockchain has experienced two outages within 24 hours over the past week. The outages were primarily attributed to an overwhelming surge in network traffic caused by the minting of the DOGS meme coin.

Telegram CEO Arrested in France

On August 25, Durov was arrested at Le Bourget Airport in France as he returned from a trip to Azerbaijan. The warrant for his arrest stems from a criminal complaint by OFIM, which considers Durov complicit because of Telegram’s lack of moderation.

Telegram’s Future: Is Your Privacy At Risk Amid Durov’s Arrest? (Techopedia)

TON Suffers Two Outages

TON first went down around 11:00 pm UTC on August 27 and stopped producing blocks for six hours. The blockchain went down at 7:17 pm on August 28 for another six hours. The outages were attributed to an overwhelming surge in network traffic caused by the minting of the DOGS meme coin.

TON back online after second DOGS-related outage in 36 hours (Cointelegraph)

Binance Under Scrutiny for Seizing Palestinian Funds

Binance is facing significant backlash after allegations emerged that it seized cryptocurrency funds belonging to Palestinian users at the request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The controversy was sparked by Ray Youssef, CEO of the Noones peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, who claimed on social media that Binance had complied with an IDF directive to freeze the assets of all Palestinian users.

Ok here is video proof from a Palestinian.

This is 100% confirmed. Israel is putting massive pressure on Binance and all other exchanges to blanket seize the funds of ALL Palestinians. The document in the original post has 500 names but there have been many such versions of it… pic.twitter.com/p3eoFOvgXR

— Ray Youssef (@ray_noOnes) August 27, 2024

Binance’s alleged seizure of Palestinian crypto funds sparks fury (Middle East Monitor)

OpenSea Receives Wells Notice

OpenSea has received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), signaling potential legal action against the platform. The SEC’s notice suggests that some NFTs on OpenSea might be classified as securities.

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer argued that NFTs are creative goods and should not be regulated like financial securities. He pledged to fight the SEC’s claims.

NFT Marketplace OpenSea Gets SEC Warning of Enforcement Action (Bloomberg)

Court Dismisses Dogecoin Manipulation Accusations Against Musk

Elon Musk and Tesla secured a legal victory when a U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing them of manipulating the Dogecoin market. The lawsuit, which sought $258 billion in damages, was filed by a group of investors who claimed that Musk’s tweets and public statements artificially inflated Dogecoin’s price, only for it to crash later.

Why Musk dodged a $258 million Dogecoin lawsuit: His words were just ‘puffery’ (Fortune)

Poll Shows Crypto Holders Are More Likely to Support Trump

A recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University reveals that cryptocurrency holders in the United States are disproportionately more likely to support Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. According to the poll, Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 12 percentage points among likely voters who own cryptocurrencies.

FDU Poll finds Trump’s Embrace of Crypto Pays Off (FDU)

Russia to Use Crypto to Circumvent Sanctions

Russia is set to begin trials of cryptocurrency exchanges for cross-border payments starting September in a move tocircumvent Western sanctions. The initiative will utilize the National Payment Card System (NPCS) to facilitate the exchange of rubles into cryptocurrencies for international transactions.

Russia to Test Crypto For Cross-Border Transactions to Counter Sanctions (Cryptonews)

Trump Family Continues to Tease Crypto Project

Trump’s family, mainly his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, have been promoting a DeFi platform called World Liberty Financial, which Trump recently highlighted in a social media post. The platform is expected to challenge traditional banking systems, but further details on its functionality and offerings have yet to be disclosed.

‘Exciting Updates’—New Details Of Donald Trump’s Mystery Crypto Project Spark Wild Bitcoin Rival Speculation (Forbes)

Haru Invest CEO Stabbed During Court Session

Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, the CEO of South Korean crypto firm Haru Invest, was stabbed multiple times in the neck during a court session in Seoul on August 28, 2024. The attack occurred while Lee was on trial for fraud charges related to an alleged $826 million Ponzi scheme that affected around 16,000 investors.

Hugo Lee, South Korean Crypto CEO, Stabbed In Neck While On Trial For Alleged $800m Fraud (99bitcoins)

X Banned in Brazil

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been blocked in Brazil following a ruling by the Brazilian Supreme Court. The conflict arose after Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, a requirement under Brazilian law for companies operating within the country.

Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others.

When we attempted…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 29, 2024

Brazil’s top court orders nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s X (CNBC)

Nigeria’s SEC Grants Two Crypto Firms Approval in Principle

Nigeria’s SEC has granted approval in principle to two digital asset exchanges, Busha Digital Limited and Quidax Technologies Limited. The provisional crypto license allows the firms to commence operations under the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP).

SEC grants Busha, Quidax provisional crypto licences (The Punch)