The Grey Cardinal of TON
The phrase “gray cardinal” refers to an influential figure who operates behind the scenes without official status but holds significant power and influence.
Canadian entrepreneur Jason Falovich is a person whose name is little known to the general public, yet whose influence is strongly felt in Telegram and its interaction with the TON blockchain.
A close friend of Pavel Durov, an NFT whale, and partner of billionaire Mark Cuban, Falovich increasingly appears in behind-the-scenes conversations as the “gray cardinal” of TON — the invisible hand behind Telegram’s key moves in the blockchain space. How justified are these rumors? Let’s find out.
From the World of Sports to an NFT Empire
Just ten years ago, Falovich was known only in sports circles. He worked as a manager for legendary boxer Evander Holyfield and UFC champion Michael Bisping, and also headed Muhammad Ali’s charity foundation.
His entrepreneurial talent soon led him into the digital world — Jason co-founded PlayLine, the largest sports lottery, and attracted the attention of Mark Cuban. In 2020, they created a joint media venture, Leverage Game Media (a 50/50 partnership with Cuban). This company brought Falovich to the crest of the new wave — the NFT market.
The NFT boom catapulted Falovich into a new realm. At the beginning of 2021, together with Cuban, he launched the @NFT project — a network of social media accounts promoting NFT collections. The project quickly gained popularity but soon was embroiled in scandal. The account was accused of advertising dubious NFT projects without proper disclosure.
The outcome was swift: Instagram blocked @NFT for violating hidden advertising rules, and Twitter soon deactivated related pages after accusations of promotion. Falovich, who had previously purchased top NFTs (including an expensive Bored Ape and other tokens), himself became a scam victim — losing several NFTs worth over $150,000. It seemed his reputation was tarnished and social media wiped out… But an unexpected ally came to his aid.
"They took everything from me — Meta, Twitter, all my work. I fought for 10 months but in vain… Only Telegram gave me back my life,” Jason admits, gratefully calling Pavel Durov his savior.
When traditional platforms closed their doors, Falovich found refuge in the Telegram ecosystem.
He grew close to Durov. Their friendship quickly became legendary: Jason even gave a gift to the Telegram CEO. In April 2024, he won the Fragment auction and bought the Telegram username @pavel for $84,000 — then gifted it to Pavel.
Durov publicly thanked the donor, noting this as a wonderful example of how users can own their digital identities.
Falovich himself earned a reputation as the main username whale: today he owns a collection of the most expensive usernames, including @crypto, @founder, @bolt, and others.
The username @founder serves as his blog, and @dope is linked to his personal account.
Informal Influence on TON
Having gained strength in Telegram, Falovich launched one of the largest activities. He founded the community Telelabs, ambitiously calling it “The Manhattan of Crypto” — a kind of media empire inside Telegram:
An empire promoting everything related to Web3: the @crypto channel (news and trends), @games, and @creators. Everything, everything, everything is here.
On the site, information is dated last year, and we can see a lot of interesting things. There are @mint, @stream, and much more planned for development, although plans may change.
Either it was in development or is currently under development.
Among the most interesting is @collectibles bot — a “secondary NFT marketplace.”
Apparently, the mysterious @collectibles channel, which recently appeared and started reposting news about NFT stickers, was initially meant to be a bot!
A bot where items from Fragment (usernames, numbers, gifts) were to be traded, and later stickers.
But then plans changed, and the teams agreed with Open Builders to create the Sticker Store, whose trade launch is imminent. The @collectibles channel began supporting it with reposts and memes, briefly covering the NFT world on TON.
The Grey Cardinal
Some call him a dreamer, others — a strategist.
When Telegram started making decisive moves toward Web3, many saw Falovich’s handwriting, and it seems obvious to me…
Ultimately, Jason effectively became Durov’s unofficial blockchain advisor, and I will say loudly but confidently that he set the current trend for Telegram gifts and NFT stickers, planning to support this trend with his information resources.
Falovich acts carefully, remaining in the shadows. He is not officially listed in the TON Foundation or Telegram staff. But the facts speak volumes, and TON is rapidly growing and integrating into the messenger.