Bloomberg: Telegram plans to raise more than $ 1 billion during the ICO

Photo: Anton Vergun / TASS

On January 11, a post was published on Geektimes that Telegram is planning to hold an ICO and gain several hundred million US dollars from the initial placement of tokens. The initial information was not entirely correct - it was not Durov, the creator of the messenger, who said about ICO. The information was poured into the network by Anton Rosenberg, with whom the Durov brothers had previously had a conflict . He also laid out one of the first versions of White Paper.

As mentioned earlier, cryptocurrency and TON blockchain infrastructure may well become a serious competitor to such payment systems as Visa or Mastercard. Although rather it is not a competitor, but an alternative to these systems in the cryptocurrency world. Whatever the case, the ICO was true. Here are just the amount that Durov plans to earn during the ICO, more than previously reported.

The creators of the messenger plan to hold ICO in two stages. The first, which is held in February, will be closed. The second, March, will make already public. During each of them, the company plans to raise $ 600 million, that is, $ 1.2 billion US. This is approximately two times more than originally planned.

If everything works out, then ICO Telegram will be the most successful in the entire history. After all, the current record belongs to the company Filecoin with its token. She managed to raise $ 257 million.

The conditions in which will conduct its ICO Telegram, can not be called simple. The fact is that last year companies placed tokens amid rising cost of cryptocurrency. Then the whole cryptocurrency market grew. Now the course is falling amid fears of further tightening of regulation by various countries. Over the past few days, the market has stabilized slightly, but it is equally likely to start growing or, even faster than before, to fall.

As previously reported, the tokens that Telegram plans to release are called Grams. ICO initiators expect tokens to be placed on the exchange in 2019.

The head of BitBull Capital, Joe Di Pasquale, claims that the Telegram project looks too risky, so he would not like to take part in this. And Pasquale knows what he is talking about, since he has been investing in cryptocurrency projects since 2013. “I believe that they will succeed in attracting several hundred million US dollars. But $ 1.2 billion is too large a sum, although now it is impossible to say for sure that they will be able to achieve what they want, ”Di Pasquale said.

According to sources who are familiar with the Telegram negotiators and investors who wish to take part in the ICO, a serious hype flares up around this event. Telegram has to refuse many incoming offers, including those from them that investors from Russia are making. Moreover, Durov does not plan to attract Russian institutional money, since it plans to create a truly global company.

One of the representatives of the venture fund who works in Silicon Valley claims that there is a big stir around ICO Telegram. He also said that he was approached by a mass of people with a request to help in investing in Telegram.

As far as we know, now the minimum amount of investments that Telegram is ready to consider is $ 20 million and above. Anchor investors are recommended to invest from $ 50 million. Telegram plans to choose the final participants of investment on the principle of proximity to the management of the messenger and the fame of the investor himself. It sounds a bit strange, but Vedomosti said that.

In order to get the opportunity to invest in a promising ICO, investors gather in groups, consolidating capital and pooled. Currently, experts advise to study more information about the project, without investing money until the release of a full-fledged press release. At the same time, Durov has not yet confirmed the information on the holding of the crowdsale of the TON project.

In the meantime, Telegram is just preparing for an ICO, fraudsters hastily organize phishing fundraising events, fooling gullible depositors.