BTC, ETH suffer losses after Telegram co-founder’s arrest
Over the weekend, Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov was reportedly arrested in France on charges related to the messaging app’s operations. Following the development, all popular cryptocurrencies recorded price drops. Bitcoin, for instance, saw losses of nearly two percent on national and international exchanges over the past day. The asset is trading at $66,428 (approximately Rs. 55.6 lakh) on national exchanges and $64,077 (approximately Rs. 53.6 lakh) internationally after price drops of around two percent on Monday, August 26.
According to Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, Bitcoin can reach the $69,000 (roughly Rs. 57.8 lakh) mark despite minor losses and market volatility, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has thrown his support behind Donald Trump in the US, promising a crypto-friendly stance. But this doesn’t make the situation better for the cryptocurrency overall, given Durov’s arrest.
Durov, who co-founded Telegram in 2013, invented the TON blockchain in 2018. His arrest has worried leaders in the global Web3 circle.
“Durov’s arrest in France has caused Toncoin, developed by Telegram, to lose over $3 billion (approximately Rs. 25,146 crore). Famous play to earn coin NOT, also lost 20 percent in a short period and is now trading below one cent (approximately Rs. 0.007958),” CoinSwitch markets desk told Gadgets360.
Affected by market volatility, Ether mirrored losses similar to Bitcoin on both domestic and international exchanges on Monday. At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $2,877 (roughly Rs. 2.41 lakh) on Indian exchanges like CoinSwitch, while the price was trading at $2,745 (roughly Rs. 2.30 lakh) on international exchanges, according to CoinMarketCap.
Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, Avalanche, Shiba Inu and Polkadot also joined BTC and ETH on the losing side of the price chart on Monday.
Polygon, Uniswap, Cronos, Cosmos and Bitcon SV, like most other altcoins, also showed price drops.
The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies fell by 0.40 percent in the past 24 hours to hit $2.25 trillion (approximately Rs. 1,88,64,528 crore), according to MintMarketCap.
The altcoins that managed to hold on to their gains on Monday despite the ongoing market chaos include USD Coin, Ripple, Tron, Leo, Near Protocol and Litecoin.
Market analysts predict that Bitcoin will post gains in the coming days and this will set the tone for other cryptocurrencies.
Speaking to Gadgets360, Avinash Shekhar, co-founder and CEO of Pi42, said that Bitcoin ETFs have shown considerable resilience, recovering strongly from the losses suffered in early August and attracting over $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,191 crore) in the past week alone.
“This impressive run underscores Bitcoin’s established role as a trusted digital asset that continues to attract investor interest even amid market fluctuations. The influx of capital, particularly into industry giants like BlackRock’s IBIT, further cements Bitcoin’s status as digital gold, gaining the trust of both retail and institutional investors,” Shekhar noted. “While Bitcoin is still seen as a safe haven, Ethereum’s path to similar market trust is still unfolding, marked by the need for broader adoption and greater investor confidence.”
