Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, says he invested in Bitcoin when cryptocurrency was in its early stages and then used his holdings to fund his lifestyle.
“I had a great belief in Bitcoin, more or less. I was able to buy the first thousands of Bitcoin in 2013, but I didn’t really care,” the Russian tech entrepreneur told Rexfridman’s podcast on Tuesday.
He bought it at “Local Maximum,” which costs around $700 per BTC, adding that he “just throw millions of dollars there.”
I ridiculed him when the price fell after Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $200 in the subsequent Bear market, but he said, “I don’t care.”
“I’m not going to sell it. I believe this. I think this is how money works. No one can confiscate bitcoin from you. You can’t censor you for political reasons.”
Bitcoin helps Doloff to “float”
Durov said he used Bitcoin investments to fund his lifestyle. “Some people think that if I can rent a nice place or fly privately, it’s because I’m extracting money from the telegram in some way,” he said.
“Like I said, Telegram is a personal loss of money surgery for me. Bitcoin is what allows me to float.”
He predicted that “it will be at a point where Bitcoin is worth $1 million” so that the government will “print money like tomorrow.”
“No one has printed Bitcoin,” he said. “Bitcoin is here to stay. We don’t see all the Fiat currency yet.”
Ton’s Durof
Durov, arrested in France a year ago and charged with promoting crimes committed by Telegram users, also discussed the Telegram Open Network, which was developed in 2018 and 2019 to provide blockchain to messenger services.
Related: Posting from Moldovan elections where French officials put pressure on censorship on Telegram: Dorov
He added that Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) are “not scalable enough to deal with the load created by hundreds of millions of users.”
The key innovation was inherent scalability through the “shard chain,” he said. However, despite its successful development of the technology, Telegram was unable to launch it due to US regulatory restrictions.
Now known as the Open Network, the project is deeply embedded in the telegram ecosystem and has gained the momentum of Impossible Tokens (NFTs).
“I think Ton has become the largest or second largest blockchain in terms of daily NFT trading volume.”
Toncoin (TON), the network’s native token, reached an all-time high of $8.25 in mid-2024, but has since dropped by more than 67% from that level.
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