According to a document presented two days ago to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Telegram, the initial coin offering (ICO) of the company managed to raise 1.7 billion dollars.
The cloud-based instant messaging service provider raised 850 million dollars from 94 investors during the public sale in March this year and 850 million dollars raised during the private presale of the company’s cryptocurrency called GRAM, which concluded in February this year. However, the total amount of the raised funds could be even higher, according to the SEC: “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.”
Moreover, the company is reaching its initial goal of two billion dollars for the entire financing round, which was subsequently raised to 2.55 billion dollars, according to Business Insider.
With this amount of funds, the blockchain project developed by Telegram will remain the cryptocurrency project with the highest amount of funds raised through an ICO. Telegram’s ICO surpassed 257 million dollars raised by Filecoin, which remains on the second place. The initial coin offering campaign of Telegram is not only the biggest financing project until now, but it it also duly registered with the SEC.
Among the objectives of the Telegram’s ICO is the financing of its own blockchain network called Telegram Open Network (TON), outlined as a rival of the Ethereum blockchain network. Telegram Open Network will use its own cryptocurrency called GRAM and it would be connected to the Telegram’s instant messaging app. According to the document presented to the SEC, the funds raised during the ICO will be used for the following purposes: “Funds raised during the Telegram ICO will be used for the development of Telegram and TON and for the ongoing expenses required to support the growth of the ecosystem. More than 80 percent of collected funds will be spent on equipment, bandwidth, colocation, and user verification costs. The rest will be allocated for wages, offices, and legal and consulting services.”
Telegram explained earlier that the investors participating in the ICO would have their GRAM coins available in December this year. Also, between January and March next year, GRAM is supposed to be listed on various cryptocurrency exchanges. Moreover, Telegram would reimburse its investors if for some reason GRAM is not launched by October next year.
Despite the big success Telegram has had in this operation, it is not the first company providing instant messaging services to launch its own cryptocurrency. The first one was Kik, an instant messaging application competing with Telegram. The company launched its own cryptocurrency called Kin last year.
