Messaging platform Telegram has reported robust revenue growth for the first half of 2025, generating $870 million in operating revenue, a 65% increase from the $525 million reported in the same period last year. However, this top-line success was overshadowed by a significant net loss exceeding $220 million, a stark reversal from the $334 million profit recorded in H1 2024.
The primary driver of this loss was the severe depreciation of Toncoin (TON), the cryptocurrency closely associated with Telegram's ecosystem. According to CoinGecko data cited in reports, Toncoin lost 69% of its value during 2025. This crash forced Telegram to write down the value of its TON holdings, erasing a substantial portion of its operating gains. Furthermore, the company sold over $450 million worth of Toncoin during the year, a volume representing nearly 10% of the token's $4.6 billion market capitalization at the time, in an effort to stabilize its balance sheet.
Revenue diversification shows Telegram's growing reliance on crypto-linked services. Approximately $300 million, or about one-third of H1 2025 revenue, came from exclusivity agreements related to services built around Toncoin. Advertising contributed roughly $125 million, while premium membership income surged 88% to about $223 million.
Beyond crypto volatility, Telegram faces significant geopolitical and regulatory headwinds. Approximately $500 million worth of bonds from a 2021 issuance remain frozen in Russia's central securities depository due to Western sanctions. While Telegram has distanced itself, stating its 2025 bond offering excluded Russian participation, the freeze complicates its financial structure. Concurrently, CEO Pavel Durov is under formal investigation in France over alleged platform compliance failures.
These challenges have directly impacted the company's long-anticipated plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Despite issuing $1.7 billion in convertible bonds and buying back most bonds maturing in 2026 to simplify liabilities, the company has indicated to bondholders that further regulatory clarity is required before advancing with a public listing. Nonetheless, Telegram maintains an ambitious full-year 2025 revenue target of $2 billion.
Separately, Telegram's founder expanded the company's blockchain strategy with the introduction of the Cocoon Network at the Blockchain Life 2025 conference. This decentralized compute network, built on the TON blockchain, focuses on privacy-driven AI computing. It is designed to reinforce TON's utility, as hardware providers earn rewards in TON tokens for contributing GPU power, and developers pay for computing capacity in TON.
