BIG? BIGGER? HUGE? Yes, all of those. Telegram which announced a massive ICO a short while ago has raised its target to...........$2 BILLION. Starting off with possibly $850M in a private sale makes the $2 Billion target almost a "slam dunk" (basketball talk). Even then some funds say are not getting the allocations they wanted. WHEW! The numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger. THIS IS HUGE.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"Encrypted messaging service Telegram raised the target for the largest initial coin offering ever to $2 billion, defying a rout in traded cryptocurrencies, according to potential investors.
Telegram is seeking $850 million in a private sale of tokens to large investors this month and $1.15 billion in a subsequent public ICO in March, said the people, who held negotiations with the company and asked not to be identified. The messaging service, used as a hub by the cryptocurrency market, previously sought to raise a total $1.2 billion, according to an investment proposal seen by Bloomberg News.
Demand has been so high that a secondary market has already formed, according to Gregory Klumov, a managing partner of Exante, which trades cryptocurrencies. “Some western funds that received a pre-ICO allocation are already offering to resell since the price of the public ICO in March will be twice as high,” Klumov said.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, 33, is creating a payment platform using multi-blockchain architecture that could compete with Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., bringing digital assets to the mainstream, according to the offering proposals. The St. Petersburg native has distanced himself from Russia after resisting demands from the security services to decrypt users’ communications and ceding his VK.com social network to billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Three people managing Russian investors’ money said they either failed to get an allocation in Telegram’s pre-ICO or received much less than they’d sought. Investors in the private sale will receive tokens at a discount of more than 50 percent of the initial public sale price and, after the tokens are listed, should hold on to their coins for a lock-up period of as long as 18 months.
The Vedomosti newspaper reported the increase earlier Thursday. Ilya Perekopsky, an investor adviser for Telegram, declined to comment on the ICO..."
Full Story at Bloomberg.com