Musk Shoots Down Telegram Rumor as Durov Touts $300M Crypto Play

Elon Musk just swerved the crypto-sphere’s latest hype train—hard. After Telegram founder Pavel Durov teased a $300 million xAI integration, the Tesla CEO fired off a characteristically blunt denial. No deal. No partnership. Just another day in the wild west of blockchain promises.

Meanwhile, Durov’s nine-figure crypto gambit raises eyebrows. $300 million? That’s either visionary infrastructure spending... or another masterclass in vaporware fundraising. Either way, the market’s already pricing in the hopium.

Funny how these ’strategic integrations’ always get announced before the actual tech exists. Web3’s playbook remains unchanged: announce first, build never. At least the memecoins are honest about being jokes.

Musk’s rebuttal 

But in a brief comment on X, Musk refuted Durov’s announcement: “No deal has been signed.” Following Musk’s rebuttal, Durov walked back the certainty of his statement, saying the agreement was still pending final documentation.

The confusion comes at a critical time for Telegram. The platform recently announced plans to raise $1.5 billion in a bond sale, reportedly involving institutional investors such as Citadel, BlackRock, and Mubadala. 

Durov had said the Grok partnership would help bolster Telegram’s financial position following its 2024 profit of $540 million.

Despite the lack of a finalized deal, Toncoin (TON), Telegram’s associated crypto token, initially jumped nearly 19% on the news before retreating after Musk’s response.