Have you no SOL? ??

Plus: OKX Computer

In this week’s edition of The Context, we talk Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, Solana’s “cringe” ad, and OKX’s DEX aggregator shutdown.

[Telegram gets the message ??]

A French court allowed Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov to leave the country until April 7.

What Media Said ????:

• Durov, a Russian citizen, hasn’t been home to Dubai since his August 2024 arrest in Paris for “failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality,” Joe Tidy (BBC) wrote. Telegram claims it has solid moderation procedures to deal with terrorism, images of child abuse, and other illicit activities.
• After the news broke, the price of TON spiked 29%. The token, created by Telegram, was “abandoned…in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny,” wrote Logan Hitchcock (Decrypt). The TON blockchain operates independently but partnered with Telegram this year.
• TON “is now an integral part of the platform, used to pay for games, advertisements and transaction fees,” said Catherine McGrath (Fortune). Its market cap is above $8 billion.

PR Perspective ??:

Durov’s arrest was a major shift in how tech leaders are held accountable for activity that happens on their platforms; it highlights growing regulatory and legal pressure on platforms to comply with governments. In September, Telegram changed its policy of complying with law enforcement to hand over IP addresses requested by governments. If Durov and prosecutors have reached a deal that further weakens Telegram’s privacy, it may alienate those attracted to the app’s ostensibly free speech ethos.

[Bad ad ?]

Solana deleted an advertisement for its upcoming crypto conference after it garnered criticism for being “tone deaf,” “cringe,” and “infantile.”

What Media Said ????:

• The ad, “depicted a man as ‘America’ in a therapy session who said he was having thoughts ‘about innovation’ such as crypto,” explained Jesse Coghlan (Cointelegraph). “The therapist responds he should do ‘something more productive, like coming up with a new gender’ and later says the man should ‘focus on pronouns.’”
• “The ad’s execution lands as a ham-fisted non-sequitur rather than an edgy piece of marketing,” wrote Osato Avan-Nomayo (DL News). And it’s just the latest bit of trouble for Solana, which—after recovering from its early association with convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried—has been at the center of memecoin scams and lost its #3 spot to XRP.
• Solana was for inclusiveness before it was against it, said Danny Nelson (CoinDesk). The Solana Foundation previously called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) part of its ‘core values.’” Mere weeks before President Trump took office, it “insisted attendees of its flagship event show respect to others regardless of gender.”

PR Perspective ??:

Well, this certainly got attention. But it also alienated huge chunks of the crypto crowd, which is saying something. Although that same constituency helped get President Trump elected, not everyone is aligned on culture war talking points. So far, the damage is limited because the story has only been covered by trade publications. But Solana won’t avoid mainstream exposure much longer: Solana futures exchange-traded funds are hitting Wall Street today.

[Everything is not OKX ??]

Remember that $1.5B hack of Bybit by North Korea’s Lazarus Group last month? Fellow crypto exchange OKX has now suspended its decentralized exchange aggregator service after the hackers allegedly used it to launder $100M.

What Media Said ????

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Yapper Corner ??

Meme (n.): An image, video, or text typically humorous, that is copied & spread rapidly by internet users.

In 2013, one meme took over the internet: Doge.

What started as a joke became a financial phenomenon, shaping markets, politics, & institutions.

Learn more here.

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The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).

The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Emma Murphy, Nathalie Larrea, Meghna Dembla, Samvidha Sharma, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome.

Ping us at [email protected]. Old newsletters can be found here.

This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international PR Consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.