The former CEO of Binance, Changpeng CZ Zhao, has questioned the legitimacy of The Open Network's new pathway to obtain residency in the United Arab Emirates, pointing out the lack of any official announcement from government sources.

In response to Zhao's questioning, some users on social media platform X pointed out that the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, had confirmed the news. Durov reposted the announcement on the same network as cryptocurrency influencer, Ash Crypto. The announcement was enough to send the price of TON sharply upwards, rising more than 11% in just a few hours.