Telegram caps rocky year with profit breakthrough and $500m in cash

Crypto’s messaging app of choice is profitable for the first time since it launched more than a decade ago, founder and CEO Pavel Durov said on Monday.

“As I predicted, 2024 turned out to be a very good year,” Durov said in his Telegram channel.

The founder, who has been detained in France pending a criminal inquiry, didn’t specify just how good.

But he did say Telegram’s revenue surpassed $1 billion after its premium accounts tripled to 12 million subscribers.

Durov also noted that Telegram is closing the year with $500 million in cash reserves, not including crypto assets.

And crypto has been a big part of its bottom line.

The app has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, including Toncoin, a token closely associated with Telegram, according to two unnamed sources who spoke with The New York Times.

In 2023, Telegram had almost $400 million in crypto on its balance sheet, according to the Financial Times.

And in the first half of the year, the value of the digital assets it owned soared to $1.3 billion, reported the FT.

Durov’s detention

The end of 2024 is bittersweet for Telegram and for Durov, who is reportedly worth more than $15 billion.

The Russia-born billionaire is mired in one of tech’s highest profile criminal inquiries.

In August, French authorities detained Durov, who is a citizen in France and the United Arab Emirates, under six preliminary charges.

Officials allege that he and his company have refused to cooperate with authorities on the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the sale of narcotics through Telegram, among other illegal activities.

“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” Durov wrote on Telegram after he was arrested.

Durov was released on a €5 million bail under the condition he check in with authorities twice a week and not leave France.

In December, he recently appeared in court in the country.

Moderation efforts

Meanwhile, the messaging app, which promises users encrypted messaging and privacy, has ramped up its moderation efforts.

It’s changed its terms of service and increased the number of moderators it employs to more than 750 contractors, according to The Times.

And Toncoin, the Telegram-linked cryptocurrency, has rebounded 22% since September, according to CoinGecko data.

Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai-based correspondent. Reach out to him at bweiss@dlnews.com.