Telegram has beaten records

If you do not know anything about Telegram’s pre-ICO or just forgot, we will give you some key points. Telegram is planning to launch its own blockchain the “Telegram Open Network” (TON). TON will have a lot of advantages such as decentralization, high security, capacity to hold fiat and Telegram’s currency in one wallet, and the main advantage will be the speed and volumes of transactions. At the same time Telegram is going to create its own cryptocurrency with a name “Gram”. The aim of the Telegram was to raise $850 million in a private sale of tokens and $1.15 billion in a public sale.

So talks about the blockchain TON and pre-ICO have been existing since the end of 2017. But there were not any comments from the Telegram cofounder Mr. Durov, when just several days ago he broke the silence. According to a document, he submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in January the company had raised $850 million from 81 investors. Their names are hidden, however, there is information of at least two persons. They are co-founders of two Russian companies: Qiwi and Wimm-Bill-Dann, who invested $17 and $10 million, respectively. An interesting fact is that Pavel Durov limited the possible number of investments.

Officially it was not the ICO. It can be called as a closed placement of securities in dollars and euros. Investors bought rights to the project's cryptocurrency, so before the launch of tokens, they received securities that implied participation in the future distribution of coins. According to the document, investments will be used only “for the development of the TON Blockchain, the development and maintenance of Telegram Messenger and other purposes” and not for Durov brothers benefit. Talking about future plans, the company is going to raise an additional $1.15 billion via public crowdsale. However, there is not a firm date, all we know that it is planned in March 2018.

But when will we see the results of such huge investments? An early minimum viable product (MVP) version of TON is planned to be released in the second quarter of 2018 with the Telegram wallet service in the fourth quarter. All TON services together with tokens “Gram” are scheduled for launch in 2019.

Making a conclusion, we can say that the Telegram pre-ICO has already beaten all records. The previous ICO record was set by Tezos that raised $232 million. There were only two more other coin projects that got more than $200 million, they are Filecoin and Bancor.

If you want more information about the TON and plans of Telegram, you can read our article here