The Telegram ICO has been one of the most anticipated ICOs among the cryptocurrency community, but it seems that they won’t even get a chance to participate.
According to an anonymous source, Telegram has chosen to call of the public token sale phase of its ICO. This comes after a ton of anticipating from the community which has had high hopes for the future performance of Telegrams upcoming TON token.
The decision to cancel the public phase of their token sale is believed to have happened because Telegram simply has raised enough money already. With under 200 investors in their pre-sale, they have raised around $1,700,000,000.
Some members of the community have been disappointed by this decision because it completely goes against the idea behind ICOs, that everyone can participate in fundraisings. To participate in Telegrams pre-ICO sale, you would have had to be an accredited investor with high income or be an individual/company with a net worth of at least $1 million. Most ICOs allow anyone to participate from the very beginning with a contribution amount as low as $10-$50.
With the conditions Telegram put in place for their pre-ICO, many have criticized it for looking more like an IPO rather than an actual ICO.
No ICO has ever raised as many funds as Telegram has. If TON tokens were released on the market today and they held the value that they were purchased for during the pre-ICO, TON would instantly be the #20 most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap, just above Binance Coin.