By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Durov added that he bought a quarter of the Telegram bonds to support growth on the platform as it continues to expand.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced that the instant messaging platform issued bonds worth $270 million to support its growth and development. According to Durov, the platform is constantly expanding, and adding about 2.5 million new users daily.
The CEO said he bought 25% of the bonds and has been pumping a lot of money into Telegram as it grows. Durov stated:
“I personally bought about a quarter of the new Telegram bonds, investing tens of millions into Telegram’s growth. This comes in addition to the hundreds of millions I spent over the last 10 years to keep Telegram operational.”
Durov then added that some people said he probably should have purchased a jet or a house instead of spending all that money on buying the bonds. However, he said he prefers to stay focused on work without owning anything. Nonetheless, in addition to Telegram bonds and the entire platform, Durov said he does own Bitcoin and “some Toncoin”.
Toncoin (TON) is a digital asset built on the TON blockchain, initially funded by Durov. Following Durov’s announcement on Telegram bonds, TON climbed 1%. The 14th largest cryptocurrency by market cap has now risen 3.82% over the last 24 hours.
Although Telegram is still not profitable, Durov believes the bonds will bring the messaging platform closer to breaking even. Durov also claimed that compared to Snap and Twitter, Telegram is closer to profitability. The WhatsApp rival reached a monthly active user count of 800 million earlier this year.
Telegram Updates Before Issuance of Bonds
Last Thursday, TON announced Wallet Pay, a feature that lets users trade goods and services using digital assets. Wallet Pay is compatible with all existing Telegram services or bots and allows users to make payments within the app. So far, Wallet Pay supports Bitcoin (BTC), USDT, and Toncoin.
The announcement also promises ease of use for all users regardless of crypto experience:
“Wallet Pay is both simple and easy to use. It eliminates the need for novice crypto users to navigate complex and unintuitive crypto payment services, streamlining the entire process to just a few clicks within the merchant bot or Telegram Web App.”
Furthermore, users can make deposits to their Wallet Pay crypto accounts using existing credit or debit cards. In March, Telegram added USDT to its Wallet service, allowing users to exchange the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. However, Telegram only supports the TRC20 version of USDT.
In addition to in-app cryptocurrency payments, Telegram is also gearing up to introduce Stories this month, according to a June announcement. Durov announced a few features for Stories, including privacy restrictions. Users can set each Story to be viewed by everyone, all contacts, selected contacts, or a list of Close Friends. The announcement also specifies dual camera support, allowing users to post images and videos simultaneously taken by front and back cameras. Users can also choose whether their Stories expire after 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. In addition, a user may permanently display a Story on their profile page, and alter privacy settings for each Story.