Bitcoin destined for $1 million, says Telegram founder Durov

Telegram founder and owner Pavel Durov is convinced Bitcoin will eventually sell for $1 million a coin, while the future of fiat currencies is not that certain.

In an interview for Lex Fridman’s podcast, the tech entrepreneur discussed a number of topics around him, including his troubles with governments, freedom of speech, and the right to privacy.

Durov bought Bitcoin early and kept buying

Pavel Durov admitted he has been a big believer in Bitcoin since almost the very beginning of the leading cryptocurrency. He got his first bitcoins in 2013, at that time’s peak of $700, when he “just threw a couple of millions there.”

When the following year, Bitcoin fell to around $300, he “didn’t care too much” and wasn’t going to sell anyway:

The Russian-born businessman revealed his Bitcoin investment, and not his Telegram business, helped him fund his lifestyle.

“Telegram is a money-losing operation for me personally. Bitcoin is something that allowed me to stay afloat,” he stated, adding:

Durov suggested reading the trends: “Governments keep printing money like no tomorrow,” he pointed out, noting that at the same time, Bitcoin has a predictable inflation which stops at a certain point.

He was positive Bitcoin is here to stay, while it remains to be seen whether this will be the case with all the fiat currencies in existence today.

Telegram would rather leave than share info

Answering a question he has likely heard many times before, Pavel Durov insisted “Telegram has never shared a single private message with anyone, including governments and intelligence services.”

Emphasizing that data within the messenger is encrypted, he stressed that the system’s design makes it impossible even for Telegram to share user correspondence with state actors.

Durov rejected any notion this could happen in the future and declared that the company would rather leave a jurisdiction than do that.

Describing privacy protection as fundamental, he criticized authorities working against it:

Durov commented on his recent woes in France, where he was arrested in August 2024 and spent time confined in a small cell, amid accusations of complicity with crimes allegedly enabled by his messenger.

He also recalled attempts by the French government to exploit the situation he was in. For example, during Romania’s presidential election last year, he was asked if he was ready to shut down Telegram channels supportive of the conservative candidate or opposing “pro-European” candidates.

Last week, the 40-year-old Russian accused the French intelligence of also pressing him to censor Telegram channels ahead of the presidential vote in Moldova, Romania’s close neighbor, in exchange for favorable treatment in his ongoing legal case in France, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

Durov’s decision to make Telegram different finally delivers

Pavel Durov owns 100% of Telegram and has invested millions of dollars of his own money into the messaging app, which only became profitable in 2024.

The platform does not permit advertisement based on users’ private data and doesn’t show ads in private chats and small groups, neither has an intrusive news feed. Durov commented:

In 2022, Telegram introduced a subscription model, for certain additional features, and it now has over 15 million paid subscribers, having made more than $500 million from premium subscriptions this year alone.

The messenger enabled in-app payments and purchases for its growing ecosystem of mini app developers, charging a reasonable commission, and is experimenting with blockchain technologies.

Durov highlighted the development of the TON (The Open Network) blockchain, which started as a Telegram project but was eventually launched by the open-source community, without its direct involvement.

He also recently noted the significant growth in prices of NFT gifts on Telegram, making TON one of the largest blockchains in terms of daily volume of non-fungible tokens.

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