Tether CEO: Pavel Durov was arrested for ensuring freedom of speech in Telegram

What’s new? Paolo Ardoino, the head of Tether, which issues the largest USDT stablecoin in the crypto market with a capitalization of over $118 billion, has commented on the detention of Telegram messenger founder Pavel Durov by the French authorities for non-cooperation. Like many other representatives of the crypto industry, Ardoino expressed fears about the possible consequences of this event.\

Source: X.com

What else is known? Tether CEO said that Durov was arrested for ensuring free speech on his platform:

“If we, as a society, lose the battle to defend freedom of speech and communication, nothing else won't matter, dark ages will be our future.”

Durov was detained at Le Bourget airport upon his arrival from Azerbaijan on August 24, according to the warrant. He is currently being held in the airport’s migration jail pending a decision on the case. Without charges, Durov can be detained for four days from the moment of his arrest

According to local media, the reason for the detention was the refusal to hand over encryption keys to the authorities and a weak moderation policy that allowed criminals to use Telegram to communicate, sell illegal substances, and materials.

Tether, as the issuer of the largest US dollar-pegged asset, has also previously been accused of facilitating transactions for criminals. The company denies such accusations and says that since its launch, USDT has managed to cooperate with 145 law enforcement agencies in 40 jurisdictions around the world to freeze $109 million in assets.

Tether helps authorities recover $109 million worth of USDT involved in illegal transactions

The company has been cooperating with law enforcement agencies around the world since launching the asset in 2014

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Following Durov’s detention, a campaign was launched on social networks under the hashtags #FreePavel and #FREEDUROV, with politicians and representatives of the crypto industry speaking in defense of the entrepreneur, including Ethereum blockchain co-founder Vitalik Buterin, ex-technical director of the Coinbase exchange Balaji Srinivasan, head of market maker DWF Labs Andrei Grachev, and former US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.

TRON blockchain founder Justin Sun called for the creation of a decentralized organization to help free Durov and pledged to donate $1 million to it.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano declined to comment on Durov’s detention on August 26 because it is not within the EU’s competence:

“This is to the French authorities, not to us. They made the arrest on French territory for certain reasons, and only they can comment on that.”

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