On Geektimes,
several times news and articles were published about the upcoming ICO Telegram, the company of Pavel Durov, which is going to develop the blockchain platform Telegram Open Network (TON). The means of calculation between the project participants will be their own token - Gram.
Previously, the company conducted a preliminary placement of tokens, helping out about $ 1.7 billion. The funds were provided by investors - both companies and individuals. The total number of investors is 200. The success of the preliminary placement of tokens is explained simply - businessmen like the idea itself, including the fact that the platform is developed by a large company with a very well-known team. We can say that the TON project is simply doomed to success. Already the first stage of collecting investments was so successful that, according
to the Wall Street Journal , it was decided not to hold ICO. Means and so more than enough.
According to the developers, TON will be an alternative to Visa / Mastercard payment systems for the decentralized sector of the economy.
There is an opinion that investor interest in ICO is caused, first of all, by “HYIP and speculation”, and not by the real value of the product. But the investors themselves think differently. There were much more people willing to invest in a new project than those who managed to do it.
It was reported that those investors who did not have millions of dollars to invest in TON were pooling. This made it possible for investors to invest not millions of dollars, but hundreds of thousands. The project involved not only cryptobusinessmen, but also "traditional" investors, who usually work in other areas. Among the participants of pre-ICO are QIWI founder Sergey Solonin and Wimm-bill-dann founder David Yakobashvili. There is information that Abramovich also invested in the project, but Abramovich, but these data are not confirmed (at least for now).
The company Durov during the preliminary stage of collecting investments came out on one of the first places among all other companies that ever conducted pre-ICO. The success of TON also makes it possible to understand that investors are not opposed to investing in private markets, fintech sectors that are not too regulated. Unfortunately, representatives of Telegram have not yet commented on the progress of the fundraising, the results of different stages of development of TON and other aspects of the work.
Earlier, Pavel and Nikolay Durov stated that their project would allow expanding the audience of the cryptocurrency sphere, attracting more people to this sphere. At the moment, the Telegram messenger has more than 200 million users. If at least some of them will use the capabilities of the new network, then yes, the goal stated by the Durovs will be achieved, tens and hundreds of millions of people will learn about the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. As it was stated earlier, Telegram needed about $ 1.2 billion to develop a new blockchain platform. Well, since even more were collected, it is simply not needed anymore.
A source close to the leadership of Telegram told WSJ that the reason for the cancellation of the ICO may be different, it is not only a matter of the amount of funds accumulated by the company. The fact is that lately the regulatory framework for the ICO
has changed a lot . So, back in February, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton promised to apply measures against those ICO organizers who evade registration. Registration requires the commission itself. Clayton claims that many ICOs are held illegally, their members do not follow US security laws. After this statement, the Commission sent out the agenda to dozens of cryptocurrency companies.
Telegram is represented by law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, whose representatives have not yet commented. Pavel and Nikolai Durov also remain silent, without revealing further plans.
By the way, the media had previously
expressed the opinion that the Telegram messenger decided to block in the Russian Federation not because the company did not provide encryption keys, but because it is developing an uncontrollable financial system. Whatever it was, but so far the work of the messenger is sought to be broken on the territory of the Russian Federation.