Telegram Holds IDR 6 Trillion Crypto Assets At The End Of 2023, 40% Revenue From Crypto Activities

JAKARTA - Telegram ended 2023 holding a crypto asset worth 400 million US Dollars (approximately IDR 6 trillion). Although premium user growth increased from four million by the end of 2023 to more than five million by mid-2024, the company still faces significant financial challenges.

According to a report from the Financial Times, Telegram managed to generate revenue of 342.5 million US Dollars (approximately IDR 5.3 trillion) in 2023. However, although this revenue is quite large, Telegram still recorded an operating loss of 108 million US Dollars (approximately IDR 1.6 trillion) for that year. This financial challenge underscores how difficult it is to achieve profitability amid intense competition and high operational costs.

Interestingly, about 40% of Telegram's total revenue in 2023 comes from digital asset-related activity. Telegram has taken advantage of crypto popularity by launching an integrated wallet in its app, which allows users to store, send, receive, and trade various crypto assets directly from within the platform. This feature is one of the main drivers of Telegram's significant digital asset ownership.

In addition to crypto wallets, Telegram also earns revenue from digital goods sales such as usernames and virtual phone numbers. Telegram not only sells this digital collection, but also facilitates transactions between users, which provide additional revenue through service fees.

Telegram shows its global reach with India becoming the country with the highest number of Telegram downloads in 2023, reaching 83.85 million users, followed by the United States with 29.92 million downloads.

However, the company faced major bottlenecks in August 2024 when CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport, near Paris, on various serious charges, including terrorism, illegal trade, conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. Durov's arrest sparked turmoil in the crypto market, particularly at Toncoin (TON), the original crypto asset of The Open Network originally developed by Telegram. Toncoin's price plummeted by more than 21% within a week, down from about 6.70 US Dollars (around Rp103,984) to 5.30 US Dollars (around Rp82,256), with market capitalization also falling by nearly 2%.