💎 Key Takeaways from Pavel Durov’s Interview with Lex Fridman

Pavel Durov gave an in-depth interview, sharing his personal experiences, philosophy, and vision for the future of Telegram and TON.

🔝 Highlights

⚫️ In 2018, Durov survived a severe poisoning and says he now lives every day as “bonus time.”
⚫️ He left Russia to defend freedom of speech, calling it a fundamental value he’s willing to risk his life for.
⚫️ Acknowledges the possibility of Telegram being blocked in Russia.
⚫️ Personally involved in development: hires engineers through contests, with a team of only 40 people.
⚫️ Telegram became profitable for the first time in 2024: 15M Premium subscribers generate $500M annually. Durov’s official salary is just $0.3.
⚫️ Lives an ascetic lifestyle: no alcohol, tobacco, coffee, or pills. Does 300 push-ups and 300 squats daily.
⚫️ TON is actively integrated into Telegram, with its ecosystem expanding from Gifts to upcoming celebrity collaborations.

💬 Quote

“Telegram is unprofitable for me personally. But Bitcoin keeps me afloat. I believe it will reach $1M.”

The interview shows Durov’s strategic mindset: Telegram is built for billions, while TON and Bitcoin are his pillars for the future.

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💎 TON Believers Fund: Unlocks Incoming

On October 12, the TON Believers Fund (TBF) program begins, and the first tranches will hit the market. For TON holders, this is set to be one of the key events in the coming years.

🔝 Key parameters

⚫️ First payouts: 36.59M TON (≈ $98.66M) — already on October 11, 2025
⚫️ Total pool: 1.317B TON (20–25% of total supply)
⚫️ Source: 220 wallets, with ~99% belonging to miners linked to TON Foundation
⚫️ Timeline: monthly payouts until the end of 2028

🔝 Potential impact

⚫️ Large-scale unlocks may increase selling pressure on TON
⚫️ Sales will likely go through OTC and TON Strategy to reduce crash risks
⚫️ According to researchers, TF may have mined ≥85% of tokens, with TBF serving as a tokenomics optimization tool

Bottom line: the market is bracing for a prolonged period of pressure, and the key question is whether TON Strategy can maintain balance between liquidity and trust in the ecosystem.

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💎 Gifts from Wallets — Straight to Profiles

According to insider info, one of Telegram’s upcoming updates will introduce a key feature: adding gifts directly to profiles from the blockchain.

🔝 What this means

⚫️ Gifts will no longer be just an internal “Telegram toy,” but also an on-chain asset verified by a wallet
⚫️ Owners will be able to pin them to their profiles without syncing through a market or upgrades
⚫️ Similar to usernames and anonymous numbers, it’s another step toward linking profiles with TON assets

Why it matters: On-chain gifts in profiles become part of digital identity. This increases the value of collectibles and strengthens the NFT market inside Telegram.

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💎 TON Strategy Joins S&P Software Index and Adds New Validators

🔝 Two major milestones for TON Strategy:

⚫️ The company has been included in the S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index — an index featuring the world’s leading software companies. This boosts transparency and gives institutional investors another point of access.

⚫️ Over the past 3 weeks, TON Strategy has staked more than 30M TON, launching 20 new validators. These are now live on the network, strengthening decentralization and ecosystem stability.

Conclusion: the fund continues to build strategic positions — both in traditional finance and within the TON network itself.

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💎 Hackers Breach Telegram’s Official Bot

An unusual incident: the bot designed to help users verify their usernames from other platforms has lost its own name.

🔝 What happened:

⚫️ Unknown actors managed to seize the username of Telegram’s official bot
⚫️ The hacker clone was quickly removed, but the username remains unavailable
⚫️ Telegram reacted swiftly, but the aftertaste lingers

Even official tools can have vulnerabilities. It’s a positive sign that the team responds quickly, but the reputational risks from such cases are obvious.

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💎 Digital Bridge 2025: Durov Heads to Astana

On October 2, the international tech forum Digital Bridge 2025 kicks off in Astana. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Development, Zhaslan Madiev, confirmed the attendance of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram.

— Official opening of the alem.ai International AI Center with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
— Plenary session with global tech leaders:
⚫️ Omar Sultan Al Olama — UAE Minister of AI and Digital Economy
⚫️ Ilya Strebulaev — Stanford professor
⚫️ Kai-Fu Lee — head of Sinovation Ventures
⚫️ Peter Norvig — Stanford researcher, former Google Research director
⚫️ Pavel Durov — Telegram
— Moderator: Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation

🔝 Why it matters

Digital Bridge is becoming one of the key platforms for discussing the future of AI, blockchain, and digital platforms in Eurasia. Durov’s presence signals that Telegram and TON are increasingly seen as global players at the intersection of Web3 and AI.

Big announcements can be expected, especially amid TON’s rapid development and the rise of Telegram payments.

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