Telegram will be the biggest ICO by far

The chat app company Telegram filed documents with the SEC to say it had raised $850 million from 81 investors.

It plans to use the money for maintaining the mobile messaging app and developing the Telegram Open Network (TON), which is touted as "a scalable and flexible Blockchain architecture that consists of a master chain and up to 292 accompanying Blockchains" that promise to be able to handle millions of transactions per second.

The company has touted a grab-bag of services it hopes to build around the token including:

  • Distributed file storage akin to services like Dropcoin and ICO company Filecoin
  • A proxy service for creating decentralized VPN services and TOR-like secure browsing environments based on the blockchain
  • Services for decentralized apps, smart contracts and decentralized web browsing experiences
  • Payments for micropayments and peer-to-peer transactions

Fundraising plans for Telegram have continued to skyrocket. This pre-sale to investors already dwarfs the $257m raised by file coin. The ICO planned for March was originally hoping to raise $600 million but Bloomberg reported that could rise to $1.15 billion, or beyond.

The company is a perfect storm because its app is successful and widely used in the crypto community.

Telegram needs to be watched very closely as it will be a major barometer of the entire crypto space. If you want to see what all the fuss is about for the app, join the 2000 other savvy traders in our Telegram group.

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