The Biggest Initial Coin Offering: Telegram Has Raised $850 through its ICO

There’s been much debate over whether the funds raised through the ICO are in fact to purely cover the costs of Telegram, which continues to grow and eat into CEO Pavel Durov’s pocket. With the public ICO expected to raise at least an additional $600m, Telegram looks to be covered on both fronts, with the development costs of the TON blockchain unlikely to be anywhere near the pre-sale total raised, let alone the public ICO target.

Interestingly, investors have been very seed investors that the initial coin offering platform was created to free companies from, with VCs reportedly making up the lion’s share of first-round investors. If Telegram was looking for sticky investors, however, they will have been somewhat disappointed, as news continues to hit the wires of GRAM tokens being flipped in the market, even before the start of the public ICO.

Of concern will be the fact that the pre-sale tokens are already changing hands, questioning the incentive of the accredited investors and whether the current frenzy is over fears that Telegram’s planned TON tech may be doomed for failure, based on the current timelines and lack of detail in the White Paper.

Pre-sale Investors seemed to have had little interest in the size of the ICO and whether the White Paper for Telegram’s Open Network (TON) is a little too vague, with the Telegram messenger platform’s immense popularity within the crypto world contributing to the hype and demand surrounding the initial coin offering.

Some more seasoned investors reportedly stayed away, while others jumped in, having missed opportunities of making tidy profits from the initial coin offerings of the past. Telegram’s reputation may have been the issue for some accredited investors who decided to pass on the opportunity, with the secure nature of the messenger app resulting in its use by terrorists, child pornographers and the criminal underworld in general.

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Either way, the Pre-ICO has already made Telegram the largest ICO and will unlikely have many challenges for the top spot for some time to come, especially if the team manages the raise the total $1.2bn targeted, with Filecoin’s $257m, the previously largest ICO dwarfed by comparison.

Looking ahead, the pre-sale oversubscription doesn’t leave much for Joe Public in next month’s initial coin offering, unless the total target is raised from the current $1.2bn, with the pre-ICO target having been set at $600. Talk of the public ICO target being raised to $1.15bn to make it a whopping $2bn has been doing the rounds, with some pre-sale investors may be getting a little nervous in holding sizeable investments in an application that has no revenue stream, as questions linger over the team’s ability to deliver Telegram’s TON to market.