Pavel Durov's Release Sparks Toncoin Price Surge
The Toncoin price surge is likely to be short-lived, with weak on-chain metrics and a potential downtrend indicating a move below $3, as investors sell the Durov release news and the token's inflation rises to 0.40%.
Toncoin's price has surged by 45% after Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram, was allowed to leave France, but the rally is short-lived due to weak on-chain metrics, with the token's inflation rising to 0.40% and transactions per day crashing to 2.15 million.
The surge in Toncoin's price was triggered by the news of Durov's temporary release from France, where he was being held on charges linked to allegedly enabling organized crime. However, the token's weak on-chain metrics, including a significant drop in the total value locked in the ecosystem to $180 million from $800 million, suggest that the rally may not be sustainable. Most tokens in the TON Blockchain, including Hamster Kombat, Catizen, and Tapswap, have also crashed, erasing billions of dollars in value.
Durov, who was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris in August 2024, was charged with failing to curb extremist and terrorist content on his platform. He was released on a €5 million bail and banned from leaving the country, but flew out to Dubai on Saturday with the authorities' permission. The Kremlin has warned France against turning the case against Durov into "political persecution." Durov's lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
As the news of Durov's release starts to fade, the Toncoin price may drop as investors sell, historically traders initially overreact to major news and then sell after a while. The daily chart shows that the TON price has bounced back after bottoming at $2.3650, but it has found substantial resistance at the 50-day moving average and the Murrey Math Lines, indicating a likely downtrend and move below $3.