A Boy Named Sue. How Do You Do?
June 19, 2026
Chugging along in the dust surrounding Telegram’s making old GRAM new again, the gyrations at TON Strategy Company, the mission or non-mission at the TON Foundation, and the remarkable Alpha Compute is Animoca Brands.
This firm is a modern illustration of that old MBA buzzword “synergistic.” The company has hundreds of deals, companies, and partnerships. Those involved in the world of Web 3 crypto are likely to be familiar with the company and its founder Yat Siu.
Telegram Notes has published a short essay named “A Boy Named Siu.” We suggest you fire up your cassette player, pop in Johnny Cash’s greatest hits, and read this essay. Siu may be in a position to influence who takes over leadership of the Telegram operation if Pavel Durov remains ensnared in the French judicial system.
French bureaucracy is reasonably good at paperwork friction. With no clear successor to Telegram, Yat Siu may be asked, “How do you do?” You can find the document at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, June 19, 2026
Telegram Note: MTONGA and Buy a Gram to Support Telegram
June 10, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Pavel Durov has been taking leadership-type actions. He pulled crypto responsibility from the TON Foundation. The TONcoin has been rebranded at GRAMcoin. This is the original name of the firm’s push to crypto in 2019. The self-styled GOAT of Russian entrepreneurship has plans to make TON great again. Yep, MTONGA. The name reminded me of a song my mother loved. The name also inspired me and my team to write “MTONGA: Buy a Gram and Support Telegram.” I assume there will a baseball cap with MTONGA proudly displayed, T-shirts (form fitting, of course), and probably a yoga mat. Mr. Durov is an aficionado of yoga and other physical activities.
A now-removed social media post on a Russian service suggested that the name “gram” was a nod to the company Telegram Mr. Durov set up in 2013. A wag noted that it was a common term among some in Moscow for a controlled substance. The problem with use of Russian language information sources on Russian services is that content can disappear. True or false, I found the name GRAM catchier than TONcoin.
If you want a rundown of what changes Mr. Durov has planned, this article in our Telegram Notes blog will hit some highpoints. We will address the AI features after we poke around making agentic functions work. In September 2026, I have been asked to illustrate how the new AI agent performs tasks previously done by mostly human hands. We also will address in a separate post the new push by Telegram into video. Video is on the platform, but now it is a priority and not just for those with an interest in sensitive subjects in a Telegram Private Channel.
The new post also contains a line from the tune “Bongo, Bongo, Bongo” my mother found enjoyable. One word in that snippet is “bungle.”
We also include four questions that are ones we are currently researching. The article is dated June 3, 2026, but that is a function of the content management system’s penchant for requiring manual entry of dates multiple times. The story went live on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. When we have a date for the French trial, we will provide that information once the wheels of French justice have rolled around to a date. Going slow has definitely destabilized Telegram. Now Apple, another AI laggard, has pulled ahead of the tardy Telegram engineers.
Bongo, bongo, bongo, bungle for us too.
Stephen E Arnold, June 10, 2026
Telegram AI: A Coocoon Sort of Emerging
June 3, 2026
Telegram has continued to nudge its AI initiative forward. Unlike the infrastructure approach taken by US big AI tech outfits (BAITs in my lingo), Telegram has designs on a cheaper approach. The company wants to rent AI compute from data centers with unused cycles. Telegram Notes takes a look at the approach in a new article titled “The Telegram’s Cocoon AI: Not Yet Mature.” (“Mature” is a more sophisticated way of suggesting that the AI initiative is not yet aloft.) The company continues to make strategic and tactical shifts. Some of these are more dramatic that renting cycles; for example, dumping the TONcoin “name” for the original Telegram crypto called “GRAM.” Telegram is definitely an interesting organization.
Stephen E Arnold, June 3, 2026
Enzo Villani and Alpha Compute: Is Janet Louise Lovell a Member of the Team?
May 28, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
We are, I think, free of the BearBlog censorship. I am not sure about LinkedIn. We are checking. Despite these modest hurdles, I have posted a new essay about AlphaTON Capital (now Alpha Compute). I have picked up information from my basic research into the “founders” of AlphaTON Capital in 2025.
Another segment of information is available as “Alpha Compute: That Old Razzle Dazzle” or more informally as “Part 2: Enzo’s Fancy Dancing.” The main idea I pulled from my notes is that Enzo Villani, the executive chairman and chief investment officer of Alpha Compute, has a couple of smudge pots hanging over his head.
Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
I pulled factoids from recent deal announcements by AlphaTON Capital, later renamed to Alpha Compute. I summarized the parts of the deals I found interesting. I identified what I thought might be called “anomalies”; for example, a person who does not seem to exist (Janet Louise Lovell), a director who may or may not work in some capacity for the US government, and a company whose main business seems to be creating registered companies in the UK that can be used to add some magic to certain types of financial activity.
I wrap up the summary of information from my notes with a snippet of lyric from the popular musical “Chicago.” Yep, that’s the one with the reference to razzle dazzle. For some reason, that seemed to be the soundtrack playing in my head as I assembled this most recent addition to my new Telegram Notes blog.
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2026
Alpha Compute Emits Another Financial Message: Is It Actual Factual?
May 25, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
On May 21, 2026, the quite interesting and busy outfit Alpha Compute released this content marketing item via GlobeNewswire by Notified: “Alpha Compute Corp. Provides Mid-Q2 2026 Update. ALPHA-01 Completed and ALPHA-02 Underway of B300s located in Swedish Data Center, $16.1 million in Annual Revenue.”
The title suggests a fairly involved mix of information. The release locations for the content marketing item is Road town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. This location for a NASDAQ-listed company is one of bits of information I found interesting. In my notes for my new Telegram-centric monograph, I have Alpha Compute’s location as Las Vegas. I will have to figure out whether the company is in the British Virgin Islands or in a rent-a-office or Enzo Villani’s property in a residential enclave in Vegas.
An analyst tries to penetrate the fog surrounding a basic news story about a financial transaction. Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.
The main idea in the content marketing item, in my opinion, is that Alpha Compute has made “financial progress.” I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but the content marketing story claims millions in revenue and hundreds of GPUs cranking away in a data center in Canada. But I was not able to find the answers to these questions in the content marketing story:
- A named customer;
- A named Canadian data center operator;
- Any NVIDIA, Dell, data-center, or customer confirmation;
- Any photographs of the facility;
- Any independent verification of the data center;
- Any disclosed invoices;
- Any disclosed bank receipt for the $7.5 million upfront payment;
- Any workload metrics, utilization logs, wallet/payment flows, or customer-use data.
In short, the GlobeNewswire story did not contain facts to back up the “news.”
The write does state that the money is from “a $32 million, two-year agreement.” The cash reported in the content marketing story is a $16.1 million up front payment. (Why an upfront payment to lease machine time? In my experience, pay-as-you is more common, but I am not an expert is the resale and provision of AI compute.
The May 12, 2026, SEC exhibit says the upfront payment was “expected” and would secure capacity for two years. The the May 21, 2026 Alpha Compute new release says the payment was “due.” My hunch is that there is a deal. Alpha Compute may annualize the two-year $32.2 million agreement into $16.1 million annual recurring revenue. I assume the cash is in the Alpha Compute bank, but it may be a sales metric. I don’t know.
The May 21, 2026 content marketing story reports a $26.6 million GPU lease liability. I interpreted this to mean that the GPUs may be financed leased, not purchased with cash. Under lease accounting, it is possible for some interesting accounting methods that would allow a right-of-use asset and matching lease liability. This would increase both assets and liabilities without requiring hard cash upfront. Again, I simply don’t have the information to verify the numbers. The money is “expected.” On April 22 and 29, 2026, Alpha Compute disclosed a binding term sheet for a $31.9 million non-recourse loan facility secured by B300 GPUs. But the definitive documentation is apparently still in a bureaucratic process. I don’t think this is the same as cash. Again, I just don’t know from the information available.
The information I would like to see (and maybe a potential investor in a penny stock would like to review) is:
- A customer name, not a “frontier” outfit
- A related-party disclosure
- A contract exhibit or a short summary of material terms
- A payment receipt
- The name of the data-center operator, not just a country
- A customer confirmation
- A revenue-recognition note in an Alpha Compute 6-K / 20-F
- A footnote pointing to a related third-party
- A cash-flow statement showing payment received
- Some accounts receivable / deferred revenue detail
- Who paid the “$7.5 million”; for example, the frontier outfit, a business partner, or a commercial financing firm.
After reading the content marketing item, I noted that the wording of the cited story does not emphasize Telegram. Alpha Compute seems to have pivoted away from its original business idea of selling AI compute to Telegram to support Telegram’s AI requirements. Second, the cited document uses catnip-like revenue words before providing evidence of cash. “Contracted revenue,” “projected revenue,” “pipeline,” and “payment due” do not lower my interest in verifying the information in the content marketing story. Finally, who is the customer. The anonymity approach strikes me as material. Specific named entities are omitted from the write up.
Net net: The business of Alpha Compute evokes questions. The lingo in this content marketing piece uses more SEC-type jargon. But public information omits customer identity, payment receipt, and other key data points. The Globe Newswire content marketing item could be actual factual, semi-real, or a carefully-shaped information item designed to improve the “look and feel” of the Alpha Compute organization. I will be looking for information in subsequent SEC filings and “news” stories for data about cash, deferred revenue, receivables, lease liabilities, and related-party disclosures. As I stated, Alpha Compute is “interesting.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 25, 2026
Telegram News: A GOAT Rolls Over in Iraq
May 9, 2026
Another brief write up about Telegram.
One of my team members sent me this news item today (May 9, 2026): “Telegram Services Officially Resume in Iraq Following Regulatory Pledges.” When I think about countries hassling Pavel Durov (the GOAT of Russian innovation), Telegram (the platform with many crypto capabilities and services), and the shattered remnants of the TON Foundation — I think about France, Russia, and Switzerland. Iraq? Not so much.
According to the write up:
The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC) announced on Saturday, May 9, 2026, the official resumption of the Telegram application services across Iraq. This decision follows a period of suspension and comes after Telegram’s management provided formal pledges to comply with Iraq’s regulatory requirements and legal frameworks.
A middle eastern government professional is petting a docile, well-behaved, and rule-following pet GOAT. Some goats make great pets. Did you know that pygmy goats have to be watched because if one falls over, it cannot get up and will die in the goat pen because it cannot stand up without assistance? Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.
It appears that Telegram, the company that for more than a decade resisted giving in to government demands that would violate Pavel Durov’s commitment to free speech and other Silicon Valley-type ideas has changed its tune. The write up points out:
…the restoration of [the Telegram] service is contingent upon the platform’s commitment to Legislative Order No. 65 of 2004. These requirements specifically address content moderation, user protection, and adherence to national security protocols. The commission emphasized that it will continue to monitor the platform to ensure these commitments are implemented effectively in real-time. … all social media platforms operating within Iraqi borders are strictly required to comply with local legislation without exception.
I don’t know much about Iraq, its government, or its regulatory power. On the surface, it seems to me that Telegram is going to provide certain information to the Iraqi government. If this is true, what does this cooperation mean for the alleged bad actors using Telegram to assist Iran in evading Western sanctions. Will these Telegram customers switch to old-fashioned banks and the systems which bird dog possible anti-money laundering and know your customer guide lines?
The news story asserts:
As Telegram becomes functional again, users are expected to see stricter adherence to legal standards regarding shared content, reflecting the government’s broader strategy to balance digital freedom with national safety.
Did Pavel Durov make this decision? Telegram is a one-man or one-GOAT operation. Was the decision made by one of his core team. What are the implications of this decision? The idea of cooperating with a government is, according to Pavel Durov, against his core principles.
In the last week, Durov took back control of the TONcoin and its technical plumbing from the TON Foundation. He also announced that the service charge or “gas fee” for crypto transactions would be reduced to make the Telegram platform the most economical crypto service layer available. Plus, he stated that the Telegram platform would validate transactions faster than other platforms’ service layer.
But Iraq?
I think that Pavel Durov, the GOAT, is using his playbook for defiant actions. If he okayed the cooperation with Iraqi officials, he must see that decision as significant as boosting the perceived value of TONcoin, preparing for the possible Swiss investigation into the dissolution of the TON Foundation, and responding to the stepped up efforts of the Kremlin to shift Russian Telegram users to the MAX messaging system. Plus, there is the upcoming trial in France on a number of alleged serious online crimes.
Maybe the Iraq decision designed to signal that he and Telegram are ready to continue the increased responsiveness to legal requests from law enforcement? Before his arrest in France in August 2024, Telegram was not the swiftest outfit in social media to respond to legal warrants. After his arrest, his willingness to cooperate increased. In fact, two high profile takedowns of criminal activity on Telegram are rumored to have been related to his new interest in cooperation. Many would cooperate, it seems to me, if the alternatives were massive fines and up to 20 years in one of France’s most salubrious prisons. Fleury is a treat I have heard.
In my Telegram Notes post, I want to consider some of the pressures upon the GOAT as a result of his financial decisions, the money in Russia he cannot access, and the hoped-for initial public offering. I think these financial pressures are likely to make Durov’s GOAT-powered decision making somewhat unpredictable.
For now, the Iraq roll over is just one more signal that the GOAT says one thing and does another.
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2026
Telegram and Durov: Some Fancy Dancing Kazachok Style
May 6, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Online posts and cyber publications have hinted that changes have been afoot at Telegram. I want to comment about one story from Decrypt.co, an online information service. “TON Surges 36% as Telegram ‘Replaces’ TON Foundation” reported:
Toncoin has jumped on Pavel Durov’s pledge to slash fees to near-zero, with TON meme coins piling on gains of up to 150%.
For some, no service charges or what the crypto professional calls “gas fees” is welcome news. When crypto moves through a series of services for conversion from one coin to another, then to a specialist shop, and finally to a “nominee” or actual owner — the service charges add up. Telegram wants to reduce the pain of TONcoin-denominated transactions.
Pavel Durov demands change. Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.
The article pointed out:
Illia Otychenko, Lead Analyst at CEX.IO, told Decrypt the rally fits a familiar pattern. “Toncoin has a history of sharp rallies whenever Telegram increases its involvement or signals deeper integration, and this move fits that pattern,” he said. “Right now, it looks more like an early-stage narrative-driven spike rather than a full fundamental repricing.” Otychenko flagged $2 as the key resistance level, a ceiling TON failed to break earlier this year, and warned that momentum indicators are flashing caution.
Got that?
Pavel Durov and his Telegram entities are taking immediate and direct action to address a number of challenges his sprawling empire faces. One of the most problematic is that “value” of the TONcoin. The TONcoin has lost considerable “value” in the last year.
A number of interesting questions arise from the announcement that the TON Foundation is now in flux or limbo. One’s point of view determines how to describe this marketing organization.
Let’s list a few of the questions that analysts and regulators are likely to ask:
- Is the TON Foundation what it said it would be when registered in Switzerland, ostensibly to take over the TONcoin, the TON blockchain, and the cheerleading for the Telegram platform?
- Will the two Telegram-linked NASDAQ companies (TON Strategy Co. and Alpha Compute) strengthen their financial positions or will losses continue to accrue?
- Will Russia’s pressure on Telegram morph into the organization’s finding itself slapped with the label “terror related”?
- Will France exert additional pressure on Telegram to shut down certain illegal activities conducted on the Telegram platform by bad actors?
- Will staff working on Telegram-related projects remain committed to the organization? Will developers building Telegram mini apps and distributed applications defect to other platforms?
- Will US super app platforms attract attention from bad actors who are looking to deploy AI-enabled agents to conduct certain illegal activities?
Net net: Telegram is pushing its “renovation and change” button. In fact, it is not pushing. It is just mashing the button repeatedly at this time.
Stephen E Arnold, May 6, 2026
Manny Stotz: Road Runner Speed
April 30, 2026
I posted another informal essay about the TONcoin asset outfit, TON Strategy Company. The focus is on events in the last few months. The article is “Manny’s Run: The Sprint to the Skolkovo Flip.“
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2026
A Telegram-Linked Company Changes Its Name
April 20, 2026
Another dinobaby post. A version of this story will appear in Telegram Notes. We are still working the bugs out of our new Telegram-centric information services. But for Telegram watchers, we will post some of the more interesting items in Beyond Search. The only AI used for this write up comes from an art generator. Grandpa Arnold is definitely not like Grandma Moses.
AlphaTON Capital, a reverse merger or what I like to call a Skolkovo flip took place. Portage Biotech morphed into AlphaTON Capital in September 2025. (I think of this particular deal as a Skolkovo flip. “Skolkovo” is one of Russia’s training groups for entrepreneurial financial engineers.)
A Skolkovo flip. Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
In breaking news today, AlphaTON Capital Corp. has rebranded as Alpha Compute Corp., with its shares now trading under the new ticker symbol "ALP" on NASDAQ. The rebranding comes as the company emphasizes its growing business in brokering access to AI computational resources with a special confidential computing spin. A report from Stock Titan said:
Alpha Compute highlighted binding agreements for deployment of over 1,000 Blackwell-generation GPUs, a $43 million AI infrastructure and financing partnership, and operational work with clients including Telegram, aiming to deliver sovereign, privacy-first GPU infrastructure for regulated workloads.
This name change creates semantic distance from "TON" – the blockchain associated with Telegram – though the business connection remains. The company’s previous ticker "ATON" had drawn scrutiny for its similarity to a Russian bank’s name and potential references to cannabis culture, with the company having raised $420.69 million in initial investments.
Several observations:
- Telegram remains listed as one of its key clients but the explicit “TON” name no longer forms part of the company’s identity.
- The old ticker symbol “ATON” could be viewed as a signal to certain high net worth individuals that AlphaTON had some vibe in common with a well known Russian bank.
- A fellow with some ties to crypto market making and friends in Russia has been cut loose from his role at the old AlphaTON Capital entity. This for-fee departure took place on December 30, 2025.
You may have noticed that ATON stock declined approximately 94% over the past six months. The stock was trading at about $0.33 this morning (April 20, 2026), a steep drop from its October price of $5.95. The new ticker is ALP, possibly a subtle suggestion that Alpha Compute will hit a peak in the future.
Can the former managing partner of Red Shark Ventures (Yuri Mitin) reverse the firm’s fortunes? Can Mitin’s financial engineering expertise deliver revenue from its AI brokering business model? What caused the company to re-brand?
These questions are difficult to answer. The US SEC okayed this Skolkovo flip. Here’s another question: Will that regulatory entity scrutinize this firm more closely?
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2026
Telegram Is a Frontier Opportunity for the Lederhosen Bros
April 15, 2026
Another semi-amusing post related to what is the Telegram complex. Those filters blocking our brand of fun are annoying, but we have managed to slip through the MSFT grate (not “great”) and swizzled around the BearBlog’s assertion “AI writes your stories.”
I am not sure how many people know about two interesting and very clever fellows, Manny Stotz and Oskar Hartmann. In the Telegram Notes’ post “Two Frontier Compeers,” I have summarized some general information. If you attend one of my lectures for law enforcement or intelligence professionals, you will learn that I call these pals the “lederhosen bros.” Both are Germans by birth; both find Telegram’s TONcoin crypto a “frontier opportunity”; and both have business linkages in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Did you know that the UAE is the site of an exclusive club called “Equium”? Now you know. In addition to holding meet and greets, the members chat.
Why are bears chasing Manny and Oskar? Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
If you want to know more about Manny and Oskar, navigate to our current home on the Web at this target location. If the story does not render, just write kentmaxwell at proton dot me. He will send you a text version.
Stephen E Arnold, April 15, 2026
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