According to a Form D Submission with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Telegram – a popular platform of the crypto community –has managed to raise an overwhelming $850 million in its pre-sale phase. This fresh flow of funds will be used to expand its range of services to secure VPN solutions, file storage, and peer-to-peer micropayment transactions.
The filing names include, Ton Issuer Inc. and Telegram Group Inc. along with two related individuals, Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov.
In the Submission form, the category of securities that are being offered are listed as “Purchase Agreements for Cryptocurrency” and the intended use of the proceeds is described as “unknown at this time.”
“The issuers intend to use the proceeds for the development of the TON Blockchain, the development and maintenance of Telegram Messenger and the other purposes described in the offering materials,” the document adds.
In January, the roadmap and a preliminary video of the Telegram ICO was leaked publicly. More details shared from the TON whitepaper revealed plans for the Telegram Open Network – a blockchain platform that plans to be considerably faster and much more measurable than Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The immense increase in the popularity of initial coin offerings is what influenced Telegram’s resolution to conduct its own ICO. $5.6 billion was raised through crowdfunding in 2017 alone. Telegram also acts as an intermediary for ICOs to create communication channels and keep participants updated. The TON platform also plans to add smart contracts and decentralized services like TON storage and Toon Proxy.
This top-notch funding by Telegram has made it the biggest ICO so far, dominating some top projects like Filecoin and Tezos who managed to pool in $257 million and $232 million respectively.
A public sale is supposed to go live in March this year with a target of $1.15 billion as reported by Bloomberg. This will get the total up to $2 billion. This ICO has made Telegram the ICO to keep an eye on for 2018.
