Messaging app Telegram has accumulated $1.7 billion through its initial coin offering (ICO) second-round presale event, reaching that mark after a staggering $850 million first raised in its first round. Public documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed the most recent figure.
The document submitted to the SEC reported that Telegram's second sale raised $850 million from 94 investors. The document also stated the company's intentions for the acquired funds, noting that "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 also included the intended purpose of the securities, stating the intent is to have "purchase agreements for cryptocurrency." The filing was signed by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.
Telegram was making headlines back in February during their first ICO pre-sale when the company raised $850 million from 81 investors. Coindesk reported then that Telegram had announced in January "that it intended to raise $1.2 billion via a sale of its own token known as grams." After this most recent presale offering the company has surpassed their goal by $500 million.
The SEC filing also states that "the issuers may pursue one or more subsequent offerings," which aligns with previous reports. The company has been expected to hold a third round of funding, and reports have varied regarding how much Telegram plans to raise in total.
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The offering is by far the largest sum gathered by an ICO offering to date. The next closest offering was a Tezos token sale, they raised $232 million last year.
An unofficial Telegram ICO whitepaper was leaked in January; according to that document, goals and problems the project hopes to solve were discussed, stating:
Simply put, the ICO appears to be aiming to integrate P2P transactions on a massive scale. Societal integration of cryptocurrency being used for everyday transactions has been an issue facing blockchain technology.Bitcoin has established itself as the digital gold, and Ethereum has proved to be an efficient platform for token crowd sales. However, there is no current standard cryptocurrency used for the regular exchange of value in the daily lives of ordinary people. The blockchain ecosystem needs a decentralized counterpart to everyday money – a truly mass-market cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency being used in the network will be known as Telegram Open Network (TON) coins or Grams.
The whitepaper also included information on how these coins will be distributed after the ICO offering, stating:
"Four percent of the supply (200 million Grams) will be reserved for the development team with a 4-year vesting period. During the initial stage of active TON development, at least 52 percent of the entire supply will be retained by the TON reserve to protect the nascent cryptocurrency from speculative trading and to maintain flexibility at the early stages of the evolution of the system."
The remaining 44 percent (2.2 billion Grams) will be sold according to a set formula. "The price of the first token to be sold will be approximately 0.1 USD," the whitepaper stated.
Telegram has recently announced that their platform had 200 million active users. That amount of active users makes the potential for the TON cryptocurrency on its network something to watch, as it could potentially lead to swift mass adoption.
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