Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov is the CEO and founder of Telegram, a messaging platform focused on privacy and security. He founded Vkontakte, later known as VK, in 2006. Pavel left Russia and VK in early 2014 to focus on developing Telegram.

In 2018 Pavel, with his brother Nikolai Durov, raised $1.7 billion from investors to create TON, a blockchain system based on Telegram. On October 11, 2019, the US SEC announced an emergency action against Gram and obtained temporary restraining order against Telegram on alleged unregistered, ongoing digital token offering in the U.S. Telegram lost a legal battle with US Securities and Exchange Commission. The project had moved from TON to Toncoin and the new project is independent from Telegram.

Durov was listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2021, with a net worth of $17.2 billion. His fortune is largely driven by his ownership of Telegram.

• Telegram CEO and Founder