Telegram’s Gram Might be Available to the Public Within Two Months

Some investors in Telegram’s new digital token, the Gram, reportedly will immediately be able to sell their coins once they are delivered within the next two months.

As the deadline to deliver Grams is approaching on October 31, the major messaging platform is planning to get those coins out before this date, The New York Times reported, citing three investors who have spoken with Telegram recently. Should the company fail to deliver coins it would need to return USD 1.7 billion to more than 100 investors.

While some people will immediately be able to sell their Grams on unspecified cryptocurrency exchanges, some of the earliest investors agreed to a holding period, according to the report.

As previously reported, Telegram was said to be looking to East Asia – and specifically exchanges in Japan – to debut the Gram.

In July, the Gram went on pre-sale on Japanese exchange platform Liquid by Quoine at the price of USD 4, or 201% more than Telegram’s investors paid in the second initial coin offering (ICO) round in March 2018.

Other main points from the report in The Times:

• A test version of the Gram network will be released within the next week or two.
• The Grams are intended to make it possible to buy and sell other goods on Telegram.
• Gram digital wallets should be available to the 200 million to 300 million global users of Telegram.
• The Gram network is promised to be decentralized and Telegram will have no control over how and where the coins can move.
• As the Facebook‘s Libra example shows, dealing with regulators might be a challenge for Telegram.

According to UK-based author David Gerard, who published Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, “I don’t see how on earth Telegram can possibly get something compliant with regulators in place by the end of October.”

“Telegram’s plans for Gram look very like Facebook’s plans for Libra — a large network runs a token as a private interchange currency, with completely private issuance, with questionable backing,” Gerard stressed in a recent blog post.