GRAM dropped between 2% after India ordered Google and Apple to delist Telegram from their app shops, chopping off entry for an estimated 104 to 150 million customers, and Pavel Durov is just not blissful. It’s chopping Telegram’s single largest nationwide consumer base.
Executed beneath Part 69A of India’s Info Expertise Act, it’s explicitly non permanent, tied to the NEET-UG medical entrance re-examination scheduled for June 21.
Assertion : Shutting down Telegram is a band support answer and is a disproportionate reply to examination fraud
The Web Freedom Basis objects to the instructions introduced at the moment within the Nationwide Testing Company's press launch on motion in opposition to the Telegram platform. On the NTA's… pic.twitter.com/xlpzjcZEnC— Web Freedom Basis (IFF) (@internetfreedom) June 16, 2026
The complete funding thesis for the TON blockchain and its native token rests on Telegram as a distribution moat, a billion-user platform that embeds the chain natively into day by day messaging. One authorities’s Part 69A order simply demonstrated that the moat has a trapdoor.
It will doubtless have an effect on the crypto market too, with India as one of many largest nations with energetic crypto holders, and Telegram, alongside X, are the place crypto communities are spending their days.
#BTC #World Rating:- International locations with essentially the most Bitcoin holders
1.India:- 93 million
2.United States:- 46 m..
3.China:- 41 mil..
4.Nigeria:- 18 mil..
5.Vietnam:- 17 mil..
6.Indonesia:- 14 mil..
7.Turkey:- 12 million
8.Philippines:10 mil.. pic.twitter.com/ewje351bst
— TALK TO CRYPTO (@talktocrypto2) March 14, 2026
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What Has The Indian Authorities Achieved?
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Info Expertise, appearing on a proper request from the Nationwide Testing Company, invoked Part 69A of the IT Act to limit entry to Telegram forward of the NEET-UG re-exam. The Nationwide Testing Company had canceled the unique Could 3 examination amid allegations of paper leak, with Telegram channels implicated in distributing, and in some instances fabricating, leaked supplies.
A separate authorities path requires Telegram to disable its message-editing characteristic for Indian customers till June 30. That is concentrating on the particular mechanism that investigators say dishonest networks used to create backdated pretend leak proof.
As of at the moment, the delisting order runs till June 22, 2026, or someday after the re-exam.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov responded on X with a pointy counter-allegation, accusing India telecom Reliance of utilizing BGP hijacking. He famous that they’re particularly abusing the Border Gateway Protocol through autonomous system quantity AS18101 to reroute and disrupt Telegram entry for customers exterior India, together with within the UAE.
Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging entry to Telegram for tens of millions of customers OUTSIDE India (together with the UAE) through a rogue methodology referred to as BGP hijacking.
The sabotage appears intentional, as Reliance has ignored a number of studies.
This can be a part of a aggressive warfare, as…— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026
BGP hijacking is a method the place a community operator broadcasts false routing info to redirect web visitors; if real, it will imply Telegram’s connectivity issues lengthen properly past the Indian authorities order. Pave; Durov additionally alleged that Reliance and WhatsApp lobbied collectively to impose the India ban, citing Reliance’s partial possession by Meta as a motive.
Its CEO Pavel Durov pushed again instantly: "This punishes 150M+ unusual customers, not the insiders who leaked the examination supplies. The leaks simply moved to different apps."
And… pic.twitter.com/xvW7CMzZtF— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 17, 2026
A senior India telecom business supply flatly rejected the claims, telling the Financial Occasions that Pavel Durov conflated two totally separate entities. Reliance Communications, which operates subsea cables and holds AS18101, and Reliance Industries Ltd, the mother or father of Jio, wherein Meta holds solely a minority stake with no operational position.
The supply referred to as the conflation both a misunderstanding of the sector or deliberate misinformation. Telegram, Jio, Meta, and Reliance Communications had not responded to media queries on the time of publication.
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Not Simply Pavel Durov, Crypto Takes a Hit by India Choice
The bull case for Gram, or TON blockchain, has at all times been distribution, so is crypto usually. Telegram’s crypto funnel is operating at scale. India, with 104 to 150 million Telegram customers, is the biggest single node in that funnel. Per the report, the disruption of crypto hit tap-to-earn video games, day by day quiz apps, and Web3 mini-apps instantly, with Indian customers locked out of on-chain participation in a single day.
The excellence between Durov’s two claims issues for the funding calculus. If the Indian ban is only regulatory, a authorities appearing on respectable exam-integrity issues, then it’s certain by these issues and ends when they’re resolved.
Do you suppose blocking Telegram is the proper determination?
— Indian Tech & Infra (@IndianTechGuide) June 17, 2026
If Durov’s allegation holds, and WhatsApp and Reliance entities lobbied to suppress a competitor, then the ban is an instrument of aggressive warfare. Aggressive suppression is episodic and sometimes reversible when the political price rises. Real regulatory motion can evolve into one thing structural.
The BGP hijacking declare, if verified, can be independently alarming; it will imply disruption to Telegram entry is being manufactured on the routing layer, exterior any authorities order, affecting customers in third nations just like the UAE.
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