🤯 I was just told that I have over 100 biological kids. How is this possible for a guy who has never been married and prefers to live alone? 🤨 🔙 Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine approached me with a weird request. He said that he and his wife couldn’t…
6,140,000
185,905
Pavel Durov
28 mar 2026, 13:54
🧐Despite some FUD, Telegram has no dependence on Russian capital. Our recent $1.7B bond offering included exactly zero Russian investors. Old bonds issued in 2021 have largely been repaid and pose no issue. 😌
In any case, bondholders are not shareholders and have no say over Telegram’s decisions. I am the sole shareholder. 😈
5,040,000
131,550
0
Pavel Durov
28 mar 2026, 13:54
🐣 It happened. Our decentralized confidential compute network, Cocoon, is live. The first AI requests from users are now being processed by Cocoon with 100% confidentiality. GPU owners are already earning TON. https://cocoon.org/ is up, with docs and the source code.
🤔 Centralized compute providers such as Amazon and Microsoft act as expensive intermediaries that drive up prices and reduce privacy. Cocoon solves both the economic and confidentiality issues associated with legacy AI compute providers.
🚀 Now we scale. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be onboarding more GPU supply and bringing in more developer demand to Cocoon. Telegram users can expect new AI-related features built on 100% confidentiality. Cocoon will bring control and privacy back where they belong — with users. 🤖
6,260,000
97,683
Pavel Durov
28 mar 2026, 13:54
📷 Photo
🥊 Great to see my gym buddy Petr Yan win the UFC title — with Gifts shining in the background 🥊
🎁 The UFC Strike Gifts auction on Telegram starts in 4 hours. Don’t miss it! https://t.me/auction 🥊
5,120,000
82,184
Pavel Durov
28 mar 2026, 13:54
🎥 Video
💪 https://t.me/khabib_nurmagomedov legendary papakhas — collectibles symbolizing Tradition, Freedom, and Respect — are going on auction on Telegram tomorrow at noon EST (9pm Dubai time).
🌟 As the 29–0 undefeated champion himself puts it:
“Some gifts carry more than value — they carry meaning ☝️”
😋 We’re starting to test new Telegram features such as live-streaming in Stories and auctions for gifts.
🍸 Before we auction gifts from superstars and megacelebrities, we’re testing the auction mechanics with the exclusive 🎁 Telegram Plane gift.
🏆 It will be auctioned in 50 rounds, each distributing 20 Telegram Planes to the top 20 bidders. The first round will last 1 hour, while the remaining 49 rounds will last only 5 minutes each.
🔜 The auction starts in half an hour. Make sure you have the latest version of Telegram installed, otherwise you won’t be able to take part. Good luck! 🍀
🕷 Someone made a game about me escaping a French prison — and fighting off all sorts of shady characters along the way. https://t.me/TotalGlitchBot
Only on Telegram could independent developers pull this off. The Mini App platform gives them absolute freedom — and the results are wild.
🎃 Happy Halloween!
P. S. I had zero involvement or even knowledge about this before it launched. Respect to the creators!
5,340,000
171,453
Pavel Durov
2 mar 2026, 04:38
🇪🇺 Telegram sent this message to all its users in France regarding Chat Control. People must know the names of those who try to steal their freedoms:
Today, the European Union nearly banned your right to privacy. It was set to vote on a law that would force apps to scan every private message, turning everyone’s phone into a spying tool.
France led the push for this authoritarian law. Both former and current Interior Ministers, Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Nuñez, supported it. Last March, they declared that police should see French citizens’ private messages ( https://t.me/durov). The Republicans and Macron’s Renaissance group voted for it.
Such measures are supposed to “fight crime”, but their real target is regular people. It wouldn’t stop criminals — they could just use VPNs or special websites to hide. Officials’ and police messages wouldn’t be scanned either, since the law conveniently exempts them from surveillance. Only YOU — ordinary citizens — would face the danger of your private messages and photos being compromised.
Today, we defended privacy: Germany’s sudden stand saved our rights. But freedoms are still threatened. While French leaders push for total access to private messages, the basic rights of French people — and all Europeans — remain in danger.
6,460,000
Pavel Durov
1 mar 2026, 03:37
🎥 Video
The new Telegram update is here — with 12 features added in one month:
💬 E2E Comments & Reactions in Calls
✍️ Notes for Contacts
🎂 Suggested Birthdays
🤖 Threads & Streaming for AI Bots
💡 Bugs & Suggestions Mini App
🎨 New Profile Styles
🎁 Improved Gift UI
🔗 On-chain NFTs on Profiles
🗑 Gift Signature Removal
💧 Liquid Glass Input Field & 🗂️ Tabs
All demos and details 👇
https://telegram.org/blog/comments-in-video-chats-threads-for-bots
6,860,000
218,268
Pavel Durov
24 feb 2026, 19:11
I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating.
Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers.
What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control.
Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU).
Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy.
A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away.
We’ve been fed a lie.
We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech.
By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological.
So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.
10,700,000
831,374
Pavel Durov
12 feb 2026, 00:59
🇲🇩 About a year ago, while I was stuck in Paris, the French intelligence services reached out to me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels ahead of the presidential elections in Moldova.
After reviewing the channels flagged by French (and Moldovan) authorities, we identified a few that clearly violated our rules and removed them. The intermediary then informed me that, in exchange for this cooperation, French intelligence would “say good things” about me to the judge who had ordered my arrest in August last year.
This was unacceptable on several levels. If the agency did in fact approach the judge — it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe — a pattern we have also https://t.me/durov 🇷🇴
Shortly thereafter, the Telegram team received a second list of so-called “problematic” Moldovan channels. Unlike the first, nearly all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our rules. Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments.
We refused to act on this request.
Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform. Stay tuned. 🤝
8,120,000
Pavel Durov
10 feb 2026, 00:04
https://t.me/charliekirk’s death is an assault on free speech. He fought for open debate, and enemies of truth hated him for it.
Free expression is under attack worldwide. Once free speech is lost, every other freedom soon follows. We must continue Charlie’s mission to defend it ✉️
7,580,000
146,800
0
Pavel Durov
10 feb 2026, 00:04
Growth in the last 30 days 😺
7,750,000
264,100
0
Pavel Durov
4 feb 2026, 12:40
🏎 NFTs are back — reimagined. 18 Telegram gifts bought for just $57 a few months ago were traded for a $350,000 car. 🚗
9,600,000
191,000
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
1️⃣2️⃣ As Telegram turns 12 today, I want it to keep following my father’s advice — and:
🏆 Lead by example, setting trends for the messaging world.
🚀 Be a positive force, bringing joy to our users.
❤️ Prioritize conscience, staying true to our principles.
5,910,000
1,058
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
🍬 To celebrate Telegram’s birthday and the summer holiday season, we’re dropping some limited-edition gifts within the next hour: Durov’s Sunglasses, Resistance Dog, Sandcastle, Surfboard and Pink Flamingo 🎁
7,190,000
588
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
🕶🕶🕶🕶 Telegram’s birthday/summer gifts sold out in under 3 minutes, grossing over $11M.
To make this round fairer, we limited purchases of Durov’s Sunglasses 🕶 (~$600, max 3 per user) and Resistance Dog 🕶 (~$100, max 5 per user) to Premium users only. Still, both sold out in 15 seconds. 🥹
Should we release 2-3 more gifts on September 1st with even tighter buying restrictions? 🤔
6,270,000
594
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
➕ One year ago, the French police detained me for 4 days because some people I’d never heard of used Telegram to coordinate crimes. Arresting a CEO of a major platform over the actions of its users was not only unprecedented — it was legally and logically absurd.
A year later, the ‘criminal investigation’ against me is still struggling to find anything that I or Telegram did wrong. Our moderation practices align with industry standards, and Telegram has always responded to every legally binding request from France.
Ironically, I was arrested due to the French police’s own mistake: before August 2024, they ignored French and EU laws and hadn’t sent any of their queries to Telegram via the required legal process. They could have learned the correct procedure simply by googling it or asking.
One year after this strange arrest, I still have to return to France every 14 days, with no appeal date in sight. Sadly, the only outcome of my arrest so far has been massive damage to France’s image as a free country. 🛠
✊ We’ll keep fighting — and we will win 😎
12,500,000
462
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
🏆 Yesterday marked a historic milestone: for the first time, investors gained access to a TON-holding company listed on the US stock market (ticker: VERB). This company is deploying $558 million to accumulate Toncoin — never selling, only buying more over…🪙 Good week for TON. Verb, a NASDAQ-listed company that has chosen TON as its primary asset, has successfully raised $558 million to begin buying and stockpiling TON immediately.
Meanwhile, Coinbase Ventures has also started accumulating TON.
Exciting times ahead! 🚀
5,190,000
188
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:31
👨🏫 A month ago, my father — a leading expert in Ancient Roman literature — turned 80. I asked what advice I should pass to the next generation. He gave me 3:
👨💻 1. Lead by example. People — especially kids — follow what you do, not what you say. Watching my father work tirelessly on numerous books and scientific papers showed me and my brother the meaning of dedication and inspired us to work hard too.
💖 2. Focus on the positive. Growing up in post-war Leningrad, my father learned to control emotions to be a positive force for his family, colleagues and society. He taught me to frame thoughts in ways that bring the most good, even in hard times.
🫡 3. Prioritize conscience. Studying and translating thinkers from Julius Caesar to Seneca, my father saw that morals outlast talent. Moral compass, unlike intelligence or creativity, is the ultimate human quality that will not lose value even in the age of AI.
4,970,000
340
Pavel Durov
30 nov 2025, 07:31
📣 Following my post 20 days ago, users have sent us hundreds of reports about scams and blackmail. 👮♂️
⛔️ Based on these reports, this week we’re banning numerous channels for doxxing and extortion. 🔒
❌ A ban for this reason means we have undeniable evidence that a channel’s admins published defamatory posts, then deleted them in exchange for payment from victims. Some have even been caught selling so-called “protection blocks” — fees victims must pay to avoid being targeted. 💵
❌ Telegram is not a place for doxxing or blackmail. And to those running such channels: don’t waste your time creating clones — we’ll find you. 📡
5,440,000
236
0
Pavel Durov
7 nov 2025, 07:15
💡 If you can’t contact me directly due to the paywall, feel free to reach out to our support team at https://t.me/notoscam to report any blackmailing attempts. Include the hashtag ?q=%23blackmail in your message so it reaches the right team member. 📞
🫡 Unfortunately, I can’t remove the paywall from my account — when I do, I receive thousands of messages per minute, making it impossible to read or respond to anyone. 🛡
4,360,000
150
0
Pavel Durov
7 nov 2025, 07:15
🪙 A TON early adopter https://t.me/TON_Cabal/1954 the https://t.me/crypto username on Telegram for $350,000 2,5 years ago — and recently received an offer for $25,000,000. Here’s what he said about Telegram usernames:
“If these can’t be taken away from me, I want them all.”
💫 When people have direct ownership of their digital assets, magic happens — like this tokenized Telegram handle soaring 70x in value. Telegram users are sovereign owners: no middlemen, no confiscation, all secured by TON smart contracts.
✊ Telegram is the only major social platform that treats users as free people with unalienable rights — including the unbreakable right to own their digital identities and assets.
4,290,000
204
Pavel Durov
7 nov 2025, 07:15
🍬 My girlfriend is turning 2️⃣5️⃣ today.
💝 She’s collecting pink/violet gifts on the cyberpunk backdrop, so I had to pay 15,000 TON (~$52,500) for a Plush Pepe 🐸
Tap 😎 if you think it was worth it — and 🧊 if you think it wasn’t.
https://t.me/nft/PlushPepe-858
4,370,000
556
0
Pavel Durov
7 nov 2025, 07:15
🏆 Yesterday marked a historic milestone: for the first time, investors https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ton-strategy-telegram-linked-online-212256709.html to a TON-holding company listed on the US stock market (ticker: VERB). This company is deploying $558 million to accumulate Toncoin — never selling, only buying more over time.
↗️ VERB’s stock more than https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VERB/ on its first trading day, pushing its market cap above $1 billion and earning it unicorn status on day one. The investor list includes long-time TON supporters like Kingsway, Vy Capital, and Ribbit, alongside many new institutional backers.
🪙 TON (The Open Network) is an infinitely scalable blockchain that we helped develop years ago to meet the needs of Telegram’s hundreds of millions of users. Today, TON is the economic backbone of Telegram — much like a national currency powers a country’s economy.
🌎 On Telegram, everything runs on TON: from payouts to creators and app developers to ad payments, mini apps and collectibles like usernames, numbers, and gifts. As a result, TON is now the #2 blockchain by daily NFT trading volume, second only to Ethereum.
🧠 It’s no surprise that Verb Technology — to be rebranded as TON Strategy — has chosen TON as its primary treasury asset. It’s mirroring MicroStrategy’s bitcoin playbook, which let it grow from $1B to $100B+ in 5 years. The half a billion $ Verb is investing into TON is just the start.
4,840,000
Pavel Durov
7 nov 2025, 07:15
👑 Rare Telegram gifts, numbers, and usernames — once bought for just a few dollars — can now sell for over $100,000. But this surge in value has a dark side. 🤦♂️
⚠️ We’re seeing scammers blackmail users, trying to force them into handing over these valuable collectibles. There are also reports of channels extorting money by threatening to leak personal information or sensitive data. Some have even turned this into a business model — publishing damaging posts and charging for their removal. 💰
✋ This is both illegal and immoral, and it won’t fly with us. 🪰
🤙 If you’ve been threatened or blackmailed by scammers or channels, please report it immediately. Send me a private message in this channel with as much proof as possible. We’ll remove these bad actors from our platform and keep Telegram a safe place for everyone. 🪿
