At the beginning of 2018, Telegram users and people interested in cryptocurrencies found out overwhelming news – Pavel Durov, creator of Telegram, launches ICO TON (Telegram Open Network). However, after this was followed by deep disappointment, when the news came out that there would be no public ICO. But despite this, everyone wants to buy this token – the GRAM cryptocurrency from the TON platform.
Despite this, over the past year and a half on the network, there have been many offers to buy Gram, among other things on very favorable terms. Quite naturally, that most of it came from scammers who have decided to earn money on the infohaype rising.
Therefore, if you are one of those who wish to buy the Durov cryptocurrency, we recommend you to learn this material at first. Here you will learn how to buy Gram and how to avoid scammers when buying Telegram TON cryptocurrency.
- Who Already Has a GRAM Cryptocurrency
- Will There Be an Open ICO
- So How to Buy GRAM Cryptocurrency
- GRAM Release Date
- All Possible Ways to Buy GRAM Coin
- GRAM Cryptocurrency: What Schemes Do Scammers Use?
- Gram Price Predictions
Who Already Has a GRAM Cryptocurrency
In fact, so far no one has GRAM tokens. Legally, the only holders of the Telegram cryptocurrency are only investors of a closed ICO TON, who received obligations from the organizers to receive coins after the official launch of the platform.
In 2018, Pavel Durov held two rounds of private TON ICO. According to a report provided by the SEC, $ 1.7 billion was received. Very serious requirements were set for investors. So, the minimum investment amount for individuals was $ 1 million, and for companies – $ 10 million (some sources even talked about $ 20 million). In total, 81 investors took part in the ICO.
These are mainly large venture capital funds and investment companies. But there are private individuals among them. For instance, Wimm-Bill-Dann founder David Yakobashvili invested $ 10 million in GRAM as part of the first round of sales. The media also reported that the head of Qiwi payment system Sergey Solonin became a TON investor, having invested $ 17 million in the project.
According to the information, indicated in WhitePaper, 5 billion GRAM will be created, which will be distributed as follows:
- 44% (2.2 billion) – sold to private investors;
- 52% (2.6 billion) are reserved in the TON fund. These funds will be used to stabilize the GRAM price in the future. It is planned that after all the Telegram Open Network services are launched (approximately in 2020 - 2021), each year, 10 million tokens will be “released” from the reserve;
- 4% (200 million) – distributed between developers with the condition of a 4-year “freezing” of tokens.
Will There Be an Open ICO
If you expect that the GRAM cryptocurrency will be presented at an open ICO, then we must disappoint you. According to the report submitted to the SEC, the total amount collected in two rounds was $ 1.7 billion. Based on this information, various publications began to write that there would be no public ICO TON.
Do not believe the fraudulently sites that talk about the public TON ICO. As we said above, it is impossible to buy GRAM cryptocurrency in this way. The only source where you can get information about the sales of Telegram tokens – is the official site.
So How to Buy GRAM Cryptocurrency
The answer to the question "how to buy GRAM right now" is very simple – no way, unfortunately. The only way to become a coin holder is to wait when the developers will launch the TON platform and the GRAM cryptocurrency will be released on exchanges. The first token is likely add the popular sites such as Binance, Huobi, Bitfinex, etc. We recommend that you follow the official news.
In June 2019, in the famous crypto edition TechCrunch appeared news that you can buy GRAM on the little-known Liquid exchange from July 10, 2019. At the same time, the owners announced an unlimited offer of tokens:
If demand exceeds supply, we can offer more coins for sale.
However, there is still no official confirmation of this information, therefore, you can buy tokens on this site only at your own risk.
We suggest you watch our video, which will additionally tell you how to buy GRAM cryptocurrency:
GRAM Release Date
Rumors and Leaking
Currently there is no officially confirmed information regarding the launch of TON, after which the GRAM cryptocurrency will become available and it will be possible to buy it. However, there are assumptions about the release date of the Telegram coin, based on rumors and “leaking”.
So, in September 2018, there were reports on the network that the blockchain platform is 70% developed, however, official confirmation came out only at the end of 2018. In January, the crypto community talked about the fact that the network is 90% ready – as proofs, e-mail distributing were sent to private investors. Therefore, many began to believe that TON will be launched within a couple of months and you can buy GRAM in the first half of 2019.
In March 2019, an unknown user uploaded a video to YouTube, which demonstrates the operation of the TON crypto wallet. However, the creators did not comment on this.
A few days later, crypto media reported that TON team set the deadline for the release of the platform – October 31, 2019. If the developers do not keep their promises, then the money will be returned to investors. However, just as in previous cases, there was no official confirmation of this information.
TON Launch Planned in the Fall
According to the terms of the closed rounds of sales of Gram tokens, the deadline for launching the main Telegram Open Network (TON) was set for fall 2019 (presumably at the end of October). Moreover, it was agreed that if these terms are violated, Durov will have to return to investors the money which they invested in the project. And since we are talking about $ 1.7 billion, everyone was sure that TON would be launched on time.
However, unexpectedly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in, which on October 11 has secured a temporary injunction to sell GRAM in the United States. Because of this, the Telegram team was forced to consider the option of postponing the launch of its blockchain by the end of April 2020 hoping to resolve all issues with the SEC until this time.
“We intended to launch the TON network in late October. However, the recent SEC lawsuit made this unattainable. We suggest extending the deadline, to provide additional time to resolve the SEC lawsuit and work with other government agencies before launching the TON network”
reported in a letter sent to investors, according to CoinDesk
Final decision to approve deadline transfer should be accepted directly by voting by investors who bought Gram Coin. And if most of them are against it, participants in a private token sale will receive a return of “approximately 77%” of the invested funds. Voting on this issue should last until October 23, after which it will become clear when and on what conditions the TON blockchain will be launched.
All Possible Ways to Buy GRAM Coin
If you search “how to buy TON” or “how to buy Gram” it will be a lot of sites in result, convincing the user of the availability of answers to these questions on their pages. However, it is highly discouraged to look for information on the acquisition of GRAM tokens in this way. First of all, when buying a Gram, you should rely on official data from the project team.
Official Information
As we wrote above, the only way to buy cryptocurrency was to participate in private sales rounds in February and March 2018. Moreover, this opportunity was only for those who could afford to spend from $ 1 million (minimum entry for individuals).
Therefore, now the only way to buy GRAM – wait for the listing of the token on cryptocurrency exchanges and purchase it there. Moreover, official bidding can begin only after the launch of the main Telegram Open Network.
According to information from the TON team, the first major seller of the Gram token will be the Swiss company Gram Vault, currently providing custodial solutions for early project investors.
You can also buy GRAM via the Blackmoon trading platform. At least such information is now presented on the project website. And you can probably trust it, since the founder of Blackmoon is Ilya Perekopsky – vice president of Telegram.
In any case, all that remains for us now is to expect official announcements from the TON team.
Buy Gram on the Exchange
Users who want to buy Gram on the exchange, should be careful, since almost all such offers are either fraud, or have a number of nuances that do not allow you to get tokens on your hands immediately after purchase.
Gram on Liquid
In July 2019, the Japanese Liquid crypto exchange announced a partnership with the Korean fund Gram Asia and offered its users the opportunity to buy GRAM for $ 4. Many media have picked up this information and started reporting about the launch of open sales of the Durov cryptocurrency, which of course was not true.
As part of sales that lasted only 2 days (July 10-12), 12.5 million tokens were sold. An important point in this case was the condition of their delivery only after the start of the TON network for 18 months in 4 stages of 25%. That is, in fact, it was not about the opportunity to buy Gram, but about the purchase of contracts for the deferred supply of tokens.
GRAM on Other Exchanges
Since March 2018, the Asian cryptocurrency exchange LBank has been offering its customers Gram Coin. Trading takes place only in the GRAMS / ETH pair. At the same time, representatives of the site do not hide the actual absence of tokens from them, promising to fulfill the conditions for all transactions after the launch of the TON blockchain.
Another exchange, registered in London by Xena Exchange, in March 2019 announced the launch of perpetual derivative contracts for Gram. Users were able to trade tokens with leverage up to 100x, despite the absence of its actual listing on the site (and it’s not at all a fact that this will ever happen).
Of course, in none of the cases mentioned it’s not about direct trading of the Gram token, since it does not exist in nature yet.
The first real opportunity to buy Durov's cryptocurrency in early October was announced by the British DSX exchange. Gram Coin listing on this platform should take place immediately after the launch of the TON network. This announcement can be taken quite seriously, considering, that this cryptocurrency exchange is licensed by FCA (Financial Conduct Authority).
Gram Futures
This means that the supply of coins to customers is expected only after the launch of the TON network. But how these platforms will getting out, it is unclear, since the Telegram team has not officially confirmed contact with any of them.
Maybe, the mentioned exchanges have concluded Gram supply agreements with participants of closed tokensales. However, even in this case there is a serious snag – according to the terms of participation in the ICON TON, investors will not be able to sell their tokens for a while. The first sales can be made no earlier than 3 months after the launch of the network with a limit of 25% of the purchased tokens (and then in the same portions after 6, 12 and 18 months).
In addition, no one legally has the right to trade GRAM tokens before the launch of the TON network. In case of violation of this condition, the project team has the right not to deliver the purchased coins to unscrupulous investors.
This means that platforms trading futures on Gram, risk being left without token providers. Moreover, the described situation has become even more realistic due to the postponement of the launch date of the TON blockchain due to SEC claims, as a result, a refund to investors and cancellation of the planned GRAM supplies for them can take place.
Another option for such a Gram futures offer is sites hope that when the coins go public, you can buy GRAM at a lower price than the futures cost, and ultimately earn on the difference.
GRAM Cryptocurrency: What Schemes Do Scammers Use?
The TON blockchain and the GRAM cryptocurrency is perhaps the most hype project in the history of cryptocurrencies. On this basis, a lot of scammers have appeared, who are trying to sell Telegram cryptocurrency in various ways.
During the closed GRAM sales rounds, as well as in the next year and a half many sites appeared on the network with offers to buy Durov cryptocurrency with an attractive discount. But all this, of course, was created by fraudsters, as tokens still don't exist – they will appear only after the launch of the main TON network. In addition, official open sales rounds were not planned.
“We strongly recommend that you do not invest in any “grams”, since there are no official public sales on Telegram. Any news on this subject can be found at t.me/durov or twitter.com/durov (no news = no public sales)”
reported in the official Telegram of the project
At the end of November, the Durov team once again warned in their Telegram channel that all sites offering Gram are not related to Telegram TON.
Fake Public ICO TON
We already wrote above that Pavel Durov officially confirmed that a public ICO TON will not be held. However, despite this, in anticipation of private sales and still scammers continue to trick users into talking about TON crowdfunding.
So, the “public ICO TON”, for example, was carried out by the following sites:
- ico-telegram.me;
- telegramtoken.co;
- telegramtokens.io;
- gram.vc
At the moment, they either stopped their work, or are defined by antivirus software as those which may constitute a threat to the computer.
Telegram even developed a special bot that can be informed about the fake organizers of ICO TON– @notoscam. Therefore, if someone offers you to participate in the ICO TON, immediately inform the bot about it.
Pavel Durov officially warned users on Twitter that all offers to buy GRAM are fake:
Selling Gram on the Stock Exchange and the Exchange Offices
Another type of scam activity is adding GRAM doppelganger tokens to little-known sites and exchanges with a bad reputation. For example, such a coin was present on the YoBit exchange for a while. However, according to by the negligible trading volumes, only few number of people were seduced by this deception and soon Gram disappeared from this site.
Selling TON on Behalf of “Private Investors”
Also, allegedly “investors” appeared on the network who took part in the closed ICO TON, and now they offer to buy back the GRAM cryptocurrency. It’s also a “cheating” scheme, because, as we said above, so far no one actually owns GRAM coins, and the terms of the contract regarding the transfer of ownership will only be completed after the launch of the TON platform (Telegram Open Network). In addition, you need to remember that even after the GRAM cryptocurrency is credited to investor accounts, they are not allowed to sell them for 18 months.
At first, the most popular fraud legend was the story that they are major ICO TON investors who bought GRAM tokens during a private campaign, and now for some reason they decided to resell them. Offer to buy GRAM cryptocurrency from them. And this, of course, is complete nonsense, since in fact these people only concluded contracts for the supply of Gram tokens after the launch of the TON blockchain and at the moment they have nothing to sell. In addition, you need to remember that even after the GRAM cryptocurrency is credited to the accounts of investors, they are not allowed to sell them for 18 months.
Many sites have also appeared, representing some investment platforms for automated earnings through trading exchange applications, allegedly created by the Telegram team, including payments in the form of a GRAM token. Naturally, in reality, such web resources (for example, GREEN TON and Telegram 10) were fraud projects with sweet stories for luring money out of gullible internet users.
Summing up, we can say with confidence that today it’s not possible to buy Gram, and most of the online offers on this subject are outright fraud. All that can be acquired now is futures or perpetual contracts on the mentioned crypto-exchanges. But at the same time there is no guarantee that you will eventually receive your tokens.
Therefore, it’s best now not to take any action in this direction, but just wait for the TON blockchain to launch and buy GRAM at the officially announced sites by the project team.
Gram Price Predictions
According to unconfirmed information during the first round of ICO TON GRAM cryptocurrency was sold at a price of $ 0.36, in the second round, the cost rose to $ 1.33.
It is still difficult to make any forecasts regarding the GRAM price after entering the open market. But Hash CIB analysts, having studied the open information submitted to the SEC, and using their own approach, we determined the cost of one GRAM at $ 5.9. They also considered that by 2016 the TON Storage service would have a turnover of $ 17.1 billion per year.
In addition, experts agree that within a few months after listing TON on the exchanges, the GRAM cryptocurrency will occupy the third position in terms of capitalization, replacing Ripple.
Time will tell how the first days and months of the GRAM cryptocurrency will go after its publication. In the meantime, we can only wait for the official announcement from Pavel Durov, and not fall into the hands of fraudsters who offer to buy GRAM now.
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