According to the reports reaching us from our sources, secure messaging service Telegram is canceling its initial coin offering (ICO), and it will not be making its digital coins available for public sale. This annulment was a blow to public investors who had hopes of being part of the decision making bodies of the largest cryptocurrency investment opportunities in history, having already realized an approximated sum of $1.7 billion.
We also got another tip from a different source saying that the shutdown was as a result of increasing tight regulations that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other lawmakers proposed from the moment Telegram began to plan an ICO.
A lot has changed in the regulatory environment since January when we heard rumours that Telegram was contemplating an ICO. In February, the chairman of the SEC rendered some violent words for ICOs that dodged registering with the SEC. whilst testifying before Congress, Clayton said, “Many ICOs are being conducted illegally. Their promoters and other participants are not following our security laws.” In the month of March, we got reports that the SEC sent subpoenas to dozens of cryptocurrency companies and that included tech companies that had launched ICOs.
It may also be that Telegram has been able to make enough money in private sales that it no longer needed an ICO. The first presale of the company realized a total amount of $850 million from 81 investors; in March, the company stated that it had also raised another $850 million from 94 investors in another round. In total, the company made $1.7 billion from less than 200 private investors.
The money thus realized is meant to go towards Telegram’s Open Network project that will continue to fund its messaging platform and develop new features. the network will thus be built with a public ledger that would in the end serve as an alternative to Visa or Mastercard, Telegram as promised by Telegram.
