Telegram has recently closed out their pre-sale ICO after raising about $850 million. This is from large scale investors, venture capitalists, and other whales. The money generated far exceeds what most people predicted with this ICO, which is resulting in a lot of attention on the upcoming public token sale, which is slated for March.
Telegram is a very popular chat program, which was founded by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, who invested $300 million of their own money, which was earned from their social media company, VKontakte.
On the surface, this ICO was very successful and it would make sense to try to get in on the public token sale. The problem, however, is that there is really no long-term plan for success from the company. In fact, the Telegram website actually says, “…But making profits will never ben an end-goal for Telegram.”
So…Why all the hype here? First, the money is not just going to support Telegram, but also to develop the ‘TON blockchain” which in theory could help bring in money. In addition, if the token ends up having a significant use within the chat app, that could push the price higher.
The fact is, however, that a lot of hype is going into this token sale, and far too many people are looking to buy just because that is what many major players did. While this can sometimes work out, it is always risky to invest in things you don’t really understand. In the coming week leading up to the token sale, really do your own research to determine whether this is a good investment, or just another flash in the pan token that won’t ever get real long-term traction.