After raising more than $1 billion in one of the most successful ICOs in the crypto sector, Telegram is now ready to launch its Gram tokens by October. Button Wallet has also announced it will facilitate trading of the tokens.
There currently are more than a few thousand different digital assets in the market and a lot more are still springing up. Binance Launchpad recently concluded Perlin IEO for Perl tokens and have begun trading already with about six different pairs. Facebook, as it battles privacy issues and other related concerns with the U.S. Congress, is still forging ahead with plans for its earlier announced cryptocurrency, Libra. Now, Telegram has officially announced that it will be joining Facebook in the category of social media giants who have big plans to release their own digital assets.
The Gram Token
Last year, Telegram first hinted intentions about the GRAM token and went on to raise about $1.7 billion in a very successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO), within a few months. The success of the ICO has been compared with the likes of Facebook and Uber who took seven and five years respectively, to raise $1 billion.
At the time, it was thought in some quarters, that plans Gram token were a little too grand because there was no working prototype. However, this didn’t stop venture capitalists from getting with the program. Now, Telegram has disclosed to its investors that sometime in the next two months, it will be releasing the first sets of the Gram tokens as initially planned.
Furthermore, Telegram has also said that Gram digital wallets for its tokens will be accessible by all of its 300 million users around the world when the time comes. The giant hopes that Gram tokens will facilitate cross-border payments, making fund transfers a lot easier. This is similar to goals indicated by Facebook in its Libra whitepaper.
The 31st of October has been set as the deadline for the release of the first batch of Gram tokens. Telegram had initially released to its investors, a paper totaling about 132 pages, explaining that Telegram users would easily send and receive Gram tokens through its own blockchain called the Telegram Open Network (TON).
Trading Grams
Button Wallet, a multi-platform crypto wallet, has already announced the launch of what purports to be the first free cryptocurrency testing network, powered by TON. This is in a bid to ready people’s minds and push for the adoption of the Gram, in preparation of its official launch. Alex Safonov, the Button Wallet co-founder, has said:
“Crypto’s biggest obstacle is mass adoption and what we’ve created will help people be comfortable with trading cryptocurrency without using real money. With all the fanfare surrounding Facebook’s Libra digital currency, there hasn’t been a way to explore digital assets without risk, until now with Button Wallet and the Telegram Open Network.”
It’s also important to note that unlike Facebook’s Libra, the Gram is not a stablecoin and will not be backed by any fiat. Just like Bitcoin or Ethereum, the Gram value will rise or drop based on natural market factors.
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