Pavel Durov Profits 95.8 Million Rubles from April Fool’s NFT Brick Launch

On April 1st, a unique NFT gift in the form of a brick was introduced on the messaging platform Telegram. All 7,000 units were sold out within just 34 minutes.

Each brick was priced at 5,000 Telegram Stars (equivalent to 13,690 rubles at the time of writing). As a result, Pavel Durov, the sole owner of the messenger service, earned over 95.8 million rubles from this April Fools’ token.

The first NFT gifts on the TON blockchain were launched in Telegram at the end of 2022, facilitated by a team of independent developers through the TON Gifts service.

On October 5, 2024, Telegram implemented a feature that allows users to send gifts using the platform’s internal currency.

It’s worth mentioning that in the summer of 2024, the messenger underwent a significant update, releasing a Web3 browser, an application store, and enabling users to gift Telegram Stars to their contacts.