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The Telegram ICO: What We Know (And Don't) About 2018's Biggest Token Sale
An outsider continues to steal the crypto spotlight.
So far in 2018, Telegram's rumored initial coin offering (ICO) has been the talk of the industry - a remarkable feat given the global messaging platform's executives have yet to utter those three letters together or confirm the company is, in fact, raising money via a sale of tokens called "grams."
Yet, the story's popularity stems not only from Telegram's tight-lipped CEO Pavel Durov, but also from the billions of dollars his team reportedly plans to raise through the sale.
Despite the company's efforts and strict non-disclosure agreements, which are keeping most news about the largest crowdsale in history under wraps, things have leaked here and there.
We've outlined what's been learned thus far below.
December
Looking back, it seems obvious what CEO Pavel Durov really meant when he told Bloomberg that he was planning "something big" in the new year for Telegram.
Perhaps he has something else in the works, but it's hard to imagine Telegram doing anything bigger than this token sale this year.
January
Investors started telling CoinDesk in late December that Telegram was looking at doing some kind of ICO.
Then, the first mainstream report about its plans came out, describing its unbelievably broad technical ambitions for the Telegram Open Network (TON). It included services that we've already seen from prominent companies in crypto like Orchid, Blockstack and Filecoin.
All that on top of promising super fast payments and micropayments using mobile devices, with negligible transaction fees.
CoinDesk then reported on the large amount of money the company would raise. At the time, investors told us to look for a $600 million private sale and another $600 million public sale. The company would create 500 billion tokens called grams that would serve as the payment system throughout TON.
With these announcements, fake sites quickly popped up claiming to be the place to buy grams. Confirming that one was fake in a tweet proved to be the closest Durov has come to a public confirmation of the crowdsale.
Read more on : coindesk
Bitcoin SegWit Transactions Now Hitting All-Time Highs
As a result of the latest Bitcoin Core 0.16 update, the usage levels of Bitcoin SegWit have been taking off. This significant uptick in usage levels can also be attributed to a number of major exchanges and wallet providers such as Coinbase and Bittrex finally implementing this technology into their platforms. This uptick means that there could be a significant decrease in global bitcoin transaction fees and times.
The Advantage
Segregated Witness (SegWit) is a way of bundling transaction together into blocks, which is a much more efficient way for transactions to be processed.
The Bitcoin network has experienced high levels of congestion since its popularity exploded in 2017, with issues abound as to how to scale the network. This led to higher fees and slower transaction times which were turning a lot of people away from using Bitcoin.
The adoption of SegWit is aimed at drastically reducing this level of congestion.
The main issue that has been holding back the widespread adoption of SegWit across the space is that it has to be specifically enabled on wallets and exchanges. This means you need to have specific SegWit wallet addresses and these cannot be used to bridge non-SegWit and SegWit transactions.
Read more on : ccn
Cryptocurrency Market Stable at $450 Billion, Bitcoin Price Remains Above $10,500
Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market has remained relatively stable in the $450 billion region, after recording a $30 billion increase in market valuation on February 27. Bitcoin has remained above the $10,500 mark, despite a major sell volume that led the cryptocurrency to decline from $11,000 to $10,300.
Bitcoin and Ethereum
Earlier today, on February 28, a large sell volume across most major cryptocurrency exchanges including Bitfinex led the price of bitcoin to drop by more than $700 within a span of three hours. Since then, bitcoin has rebounded to $10,500, but volumes remain low on many exchanges.
More importantly, the daily trading volume of Tether, a cryptocurrency that is backed at 1:1 ratio with the US dollar, has spiked to $2.5 billion, indicating that cryptocurrency traders are using Tether to hedge the value of major cryptocurrencies. It is unlikely that traders are selling Tether and allocating their funds into other cryptocurrencies, because the market valuation of the market has fallen by over $18 billion since February 27.
Based on the price trend of bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies throughout the past week, it is unlikely that the market will enter a strong bull market in the short-term. It is more likely that the market will remain highly volatile in the $450 billion region both in the upside and downside, before it leads a strong rally to its previous levels in January.
In late 2017, when the price of cryptocurrencies achieved all-time highs, extremely optimistic media coverage coaxed investors outside of the cryptocurrency market, especially in the finance sector, to invest heavily in the cryptocurrency market. As the price of major cryptocurrencies plunged, many casual investors and newcomers suffered major losses.
Read more on : ccn
JACK DORSEY: Square 'is not stopping at buying and selling' bitcoin
Square, the payments app helmed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is doubling down on its cryptocurrency bet.
"Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling," Dorsey told analysts on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. "We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry and we want to learn as quickly as possible."
For now, bitcoin’s impact on Square’s bottom line "was really immaterial," Dorsey said.
In the final quarter of 2017, the company earned an adjusted $0.8 per share, beating the $0.067 that Wall Street was expecting, according to Bloomberg. Revenue of $282 million also topped the Street’s estimate.
"We also believe that it does provide an opportunity to get more people access to the financial system. And certainly, that's in stores of asset, but also ultimately, over time, through currency," he said.
An estimated 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to a bank account, according to a 2017 World Bank report. That’s a massive number that many say cryptocurrency could help bring down by making it easier for customers to prove their identity to comply with so-called “know your customer” laws.
Read more on : investing
J.P Morgan Sees Crypto As ‘Competition’ And ‘Risk’ To Its Business In SEC Annual Report
source
J.P. Morgan Chase has added a segment on cryptocurrencies to the “Risk Factor” section of their 2017 annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filed yesterday, Feb. 27.
The annual report mentions cryptocurrencies under the “Competition” subsection when describing how new competitors have emerged that threaten J.P. Morgan’s operations:
“Both financial institutions and their non-banking competitors face the risk that payment processing and other services could be disrupted by technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, that require no intermediation.”
The report notes that these new technologies, evidently including Blockchain, although they don’t mention it by name, “could require JPMorgan Chase to spend more to modify or adapt its products to attract and retain clients and customers or to match products and services offered by its competitors, including technology companies.”
This competition could potentially “put downward pressure on prices and fees for JPMorgan Chase’s products and services or may cause JPMorgan Chase to lose market share.”
Read more on : cointelegraph
Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice.
Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.