Telegram holds another ICO round

The other day it became known that Telegram is conducting another round of primary token allocation. Experts believe that as a result several hundred million US dollars may be additionally attracted. In the course of the first placement, funds from approximately tens of $ 850 million were received from several dozen investors. The previous record holder collected about $ 232 million.

Already this week, investors have received e-mail notification of the next round of the sale of the company’s tokens to a public ICO. Reports about this resource The Verge, referring immediately to four sources familiar with the circumstances of the project.

Unfortunately, the plans of Pavel and Nikolai Durov on the amount of funds that can be raised during the new round are unknown. However, the company may well raise several hundred million more. The brothers are highly reputable figures in the business world; Telegram has a working asset at its disposal, which is why ICO Telegram, and so becoming the largest in history, can attract additional funds.

True, there are experts who believe that investor interest in the company's ICO is caused by “HYIP and speculation”, and not the real value of the product. This is a project Telegram Open Network. This is an Ethereum-like infrastructure, which includes applications, services, and can also work as an online store. Previously, Telegram was accused of providing a small amount of information regarding the project itself.

During the first round of tokensail, payment from the first investor was received by the company on January 29, 2018. All funds raised will be used to develop the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain platform. The means of payment between the participants of the platform is its own token.

As for investors, among them there are very famous businessmen. Thus, the founder of QIWI, Sergey Solonin himself, announced that he had invested $ 17 million in the company. Another 10 dollars was invested by the founder of Wimm-bill-dan David Yakobashvili. Rumor has it that Roman Abramovich, who invested $ 300 million, is also an investor, but these may simply be rumors, not supported by anything. It is worth noting that ICO Telegram may not be available for US citizens, because in this country the regulator, which is trying to start market regulation, follows companies that conduct tokensale.

But how much money does Telegram collect? Analysts differ on estimates. Yes, interest in the company has not faded away yet, and cryptocurrency and blockchain are afloat. It may well be that, in the wake of this interest, the company will succeed in obtaining a new portion of investments, which no other ICO has ever seen before.

Those investors who do not have tens of millions of dollars, are going to pools for participation in the ICO Telegram. Thus, companies and individuals with small capital could invest not millions, but hundreds of thousands of US dollars. The difference between the ICO Telegram and other ICOs is that not only crypto-enthusiasts but also “traditional” investors took part in it.

As for the open to all ICO, it will be held in March. However, it remains unclear how the second stage of the closed tokensale will correlate with the beginning of the ICO, and how the first may affect the second. Anyway, the market looks forward to Telegram tokens with great impatience, although financial analysts are skeptical about the real value of the company's tokens.

Crypto-finance specialists also do not fully trust ICO Telegram. For example, Christian Catalani, a professor at MIT and the founder of the laboratory of cryptoeconomics, conducts a detailed analysis of about one and a half thousand ICO together with his team. “We analyze a large number of White Paper, and many are a kind of ICO advertisement, without specifying the necessary amount of technical details,” says the professor. “As for ICO Telegram, the company seems to promise more than it actually intends to fulfill.”

However, the TON infrastructure describes, and quite well, a 132-page document. True, experts here are skeptical about the Telegram undertaking, believing that the system is not really valuable.

Anyway, Telegram continues to attract users, and there is little doubt that ICO will be held, and the necessary funds for the company will be raised.