As per the latest filing by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with SEC, Telegram’s billion dollar ICO (Initial Coin Offering) has raised its initial $850 million, reaching its first milestone.
According to the report, that was submitted on Tuesday, the money is raised for the “development” of TON (Telegram Open Network) Blockchain, “the development and maintenance of Telegram Messenger and the other purposes described in the offering materials.”
“This $850,000,000 offering was made under a claim of federal exemption under Rule 506(c) and/or Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933. The issuers may pursue one or more subsequent offerings, in which case a new or amended Form D will be filed,” the report clarifies.
The initial sum raised is most likely the pre-sale stage of the ICO, as per the source TechCrunch which was targeting VC firms and top figures in the investment community who were given lucrative discounts to buy Telegram Gram token. Initially, the pre-sale was targeting a figure of $600 million but the unexpected demand pushed the figure up to $850 million.
The initial plan for TON project was to raise a further $600 million to develop it via a public sale that starts in March, but it remains to be seen whether this figure will now be adjusted. Bloomberg previously suggested that the public sale would expand to $1.15 billion bringing the total raised funds to around $2 billion if it goes successful.
Nonetheless, the sale would be the largest that any ICO ever saw til date. The pre-sale already tops all other ICOs held, let alone the public sale.
The messaging app Telegram started initially as a WhatsApp alternative, but soon become a platform for cryptocurrency with get-rich-quick schemes. Telegram owes its growth to the digital currency trend that made it a platform for such promotions and discussions. Telegram has become a “crypto world” for may investors in digital currency. “It’s one of the first things I check in the morning and one of the last things I do at night,”says Levin, whose San Francisco-based firm has about $25 million in assets.
Telegram is seeking to fund a mainstream payment system using multi-blockchain architecture which will be integrated into their global messaging platform. Til now Telegram that had been serving as the communication platform for token sales and ICOs, will leverage its user base to sell its very own TON.