Telegram’s Cryptocurrency Stays On Course For Its Launch

Facebook’s plans to launch Libra seem to have hit a brick wall following the social network’s battle with American regulators.

The social media giant is struggling to meet regulatory expectations and satisfy authorities’ questions about issues of security. Despite Facebook’s woes, another social media company, Telegram, is going forward with their plans to launch their cryptocurrency.

Telegram’s crypto asset, named Gram, is due to be launched in the next few months. According to some investors who have participated in Gram’s ICO, the social media company has informed them that the first batches of the coin will be available within two months.

The coins will be available to individuals who buy crypto online through most of the popular trading platforms.

Gram digital wallets

Telegram has hundreds of millions of users and the crypto wallet will be available to all these users.

The investors said that Telegram says the cryptocurrency will be available to over 200 million users right from the go. The investors spoke on condition of anonymity because the social network has made its investors sign nondisclosure agreements.

Facilitating payments around the world

Similar to Facebook, Telegram plans to use their cryptocurrency to facilitate payments across the world. Gram will function as an online currency and can be used to send money from one part of the world to the other.

Through Telegram’s coin offering, $1.7 billion was raised from their investors, and this shows how big the social media company’s ambitions are.

Regulatory pressure on cryptocurrency

Telegram’s development of its cryptocurrency has been shrouded in secrecy and if the regulatory matters around Libra are anything to go by, Telegram may face pressure from authorities when its tokens go public.

Authorities have been scrutinizing cryptocurrencies for their role in illegal activity such as money laundering and drug dealing.

Many crypto related businesses have had to close shop in the United States because of the strict regulatory policies that the country is employing.

Speaking about Gram, Richard Levin, a crypto specialist at Polsinelli, said that any company which has plans to launch a cryptocurrency of that sort has to be careful on many levels. He added that he suspects that regulators will place a lot of scrutiny on Gram once it goes public.

Gram and regulatory authorities

Since its inception, Gram has operated with a borderline disregard of regulatory policies. The social network is popular for its privacy measures and this places it in bad books with a number of governments across the world.

Through Telegram, it is easy to send encrypted messages to other users and this has made the application popular among dissidents and other individuals engaged in illicit activity.

Some governments have made attempts to block Telegram from their jurisdictions. The governments of Iran and Russia have tried to have the social network shut down.

These governments may face challenges if they try to stop Gram because it uses a similar setup to that of Bitcoin and this makes it easy for the digital assets to operate outside government regulations.