Billionaire Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Holds $7 Million in Notcoin and Promises to Keep It Up to 100 Times
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Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has received a generous donation from over half a million players of the viral Telegram-based clicker game Notcoin.
Players donated a portion of their in-game coins to Durov as a token of gratitude to the messaging app that hosts the crypto game.
The value of the donated loot has now risen to millions of dollars, and Durov has said he plans to hold onto the tokens until they have increased a hundredfold.
Over 552,000 Notcoin players donate to Durov
In February, more than 552,000 Notcoin players donated a portion of their in-game coins to Durov, allowing him to acquire over 1.03 billion NOT tokens.
This represents just over 1% of the total Notcoin supply on The Open Network (TON).
At the time of writing, the value of these tokens is approximately $7.3 million, although it was slightly lower at $6.8 million at the time of Durov’s announcement.
Durov, whose net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion according to Forbes, does not urgently need the money and has no plans to sell the tokens.
However, he has stated that he will sell the tokens when their value rises to $680 million to purchase additional servers for Telegram to further support the messaging app’s infrastructure.
1,030,383,291.36 Notcoin ($6.8 million) were sent as a donation to Pavel Durov and Telegram.
Thank you for everything you have built.https://t.co/ZaBgB22yyg pic.twitter.com/8gmNjbBs3s
— Notcoin Ø (@thenotcoin) May 17, 2024
Notcoin, which launched as the largest gaming token this year, had a market cap of nearly $1.5 billion at its debut.
As is often the case with new cryptocurrencies, NOT’s value has been volatile since its launch, falling 50% to its current price of just over $0.007 according to CoinMarketCap.
Despite the drop, NOT currently ranks as the 101st most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap, with a market cap of $746 million.
Impressively, it has amassed over $1 billion in trading volume within the first 24 hours of its launch.
After temporarily pausing its coin tapping gameplay in April to prepare for the token’s launch, Notcoin is now set to relaunch its crypto earning game.
The ultimate goal is for Notcoin to serve as a platform for additional games, becoming the “Netflix of social, viral games,” as co-creator Sasha Plotvinov described it in an interview with Decrypt’s GG in April.
TON Space will be available from November
Starting in November, TON Space, a self-governed wallet, will be accessible to Telegram’s global user base without the need for wallet registration.
This feature serves as an extension of the existing custodial version of the Telegram wallet, which has already amassed three million registered users.
However, certain jurisdictions, such as the United States, are currently excluded from the self-governed wallet due to the country’s increased regulatory scrutiny and the geo-fencing of numerous crypto apps.
The launch of a new wallet comes as the Telegram TON blockchain has introduced a new feature that allows Telegram users to transfer Tether (USDT).
Recently, the team overseeing The Open Network (TON) blockchain also completed its conversioninto a Swiss non-profit organization.
