As CEO of billion-user messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov may stand as the most pivotal figure in bona fide mass adoption of cryptocurrency for many observers.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2025 list.

By embedding the wallet for the TON blockchain into its popular messaging app, Telegram aims to remove some of the most cumbersome elements of interacting with crypto, such as remembering seed phrases and registering on an exchange. In short, Durov wants to make Telegram the biggest mass-market crypto on-ramp, offering digital asset services through an interface that's as simple as sending a message.

In 2025, Telegram garnered attention from no less a prospective investor than the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock. Telegram raised $1.7 billion via convertible bonds in a tender offer, which closed in late May, that drew the interest of investors including BlackRock, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and hedge fund Citadel.

Durov is known as a staunch advocate of privacy and free speech, which formed part of his motivation for the creation of Telegram in 2014. However, his reputation sometimes precedes him when it comes to law enforcement agencies. In August of 2024, French authorities confiscated his passport and imposed a travel ban on him following preliminary charges related to complicity in drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud through Telegram. When he recovered his passport in March this year, the TON token jumped 20% on the news.

While Durov and Telegram, in general, may remain controversial, according to some observers, 2025 also saw the app demonstrate a determination to crack down on unlawful use of its platform, which would otherwise tarnish it with the brush of crime, fraud, and so on. This year, Telegram shut down illicit crypto-centric marketplaces Xinbi and Haowang, formerly Huione, in partnership with blockchain sleuths Elliptic. The two marketplaces were thought to have processed transactions worth over $40 billion combined on Telegram since 2021.