Julia Vavilova, the influencer who accompanied Pavel Durov on the last leg of his journey before the arrest in France, is drawing attention to crypto influencers. As scrutiny on Telegram increases, crypto communities may be affected by pressure to moderate content.
Julia Vavilova branded herself as a crypto coach, among other things. She last streamed about crypto ten months ago, giving basic advice on protecting seed phrases and never keeping funds on Binance. She also produces content in Spanish and Arabic through paywalled courses.
So far, Vavilova has not shilled any specific coin or token, limiting herself to basic coaching on wallets, security, KYC and other onboarding issues. However, her role as a ‘crypto coach’ draws attention to the issue of crypto influencers and the rules on social media messages.
Vavilova canceled all Twitch streams for this week, listing her status as “on vacation,” with the next chat coming on September 1. Her latest Telegram posting features a roadside video, where an older Soviet-era car features an Azeri license plate, most probably from Baku.
Vavilova has not communicated anything related to Durov’s arrest, and it’s mostly a guessing game what her role was in the last leg of the trip to Paris.
Recent flight data analyzed on social media shows Durov may have attempted to avoid a landing in France at the last moment. Flight radar images show Durov’s private plane reversed course in the air space of France, but then reversed and landed in Paris, with Vavilova’s presence during the arrest also confirmed.
The flight from Baku was actually supposed to be a refueling stop for the private jet, which may have lacked the fuel to leave the country. Even without Vavilova’s presence, the private jet was the biggest tell-tale flag of Durov’s arrival.
Will Telegram change for crypto communities?
The contentious issue for Telegram is that it is viewed as a social media app, due to the presence of channels viewed by millions of subscribers. The channels only have internal moderation rules, with no oversight on topics of fake news or any form of centrally enforced fact-checking.
When it comes to European Union rules, end-to-end encryption is not banned by itself. There is even no requirement to have backdoors to encryption. However, the European Commission may demand assistance with breaking encryption during active criminal investigation.
The other influence over the usage of Telegram is the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), which has been in force since February 2024. Telegram may fall just under the demands of DSA if its users in the EU exceed 45M. In H1, Telegram estimated that there are around 41M users in the EU, with rapid growth in the past months.
The European Commission also has specific agreements with four countries to enforce agencies and mount a reaction to what is seen as illegal content. France is one of those countries, along with Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. The reaction against Telegram content may depend on the availability and technical preparation of local agencies.
It is true that Telegram contains many groups and channels dedicated to abuses, pirate software, as well as legal but risky access to trading bots and pump groups. But a bigger crackdown may affect even legitimate crypto communities, joined in a globally accessible app.
Julia Vavilova sparks meme token frenzy after Durov’s arrest
Despite the initial shock, crypto is business as usual and no world event remains unnoticed by meme token launchers.
A new token was immediately launched on TON’s native blockchain. So far, JULIVAVILOVA is only thinly traded by a couple of insiders. The token is less than 24 hours old and has a liquidity under $7,000.
The newly launched DUROV token on Solana is doing much better, with more than $300K liquidity in under four hours. Like many other hot meme tokens, DUROV also crashed in one giant red candle, taking the SOL of early buyers. DUROV is still up 80% in the last 24 hours since its launch. There are also six versions of FREEDUROV tokens, each competing to gain the top liquidity and become the default asset.
Toncoin (TON) continues to be in the red, sinking to $5.73 and threatening to slide out of the top 10 assets. TON may also test the $5 bounce zone, as the asset has been sliding in a downward channel for the past few weeks.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva
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