A document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that The9 Ltd purchased 5,297,257 tokens during the initial coin offering (ICO) Telegram held back in January 2018. The tokens were estimated to cost around $2 million. The entry also showed that the Chinese company had invested in several blockchain-based firms that year.

Report from RBC

Meanwhile, a recent report by Russia-based business news company RBC stated that the Securities and Exchange document is proof of The9 being the first publicly-named investor from a foreign country. The RBC report noted that the majority of Telegram’s ICO investors are still unknown.

Telegram’s first ICO saw 81 investors contributing to amass $850 million for the company. However, a mere three of the 81 investors’ identities have been revealed. The named investors are David Yakobashvili, Sergey Solonin, and a TMT Investments venture company co-founded by Alexander Morgulchik and German Kaplun.

RBC also pointed out in its next ICO, Telegram got $850 million. Like the previous ICO, the investors’ identities were kept a secret.

Price Went Up To $1.45

The Telecom token was sold for about $0.38 in the initial round while in the second phase, the price went up to $1.45.

The9 Ltd develops and distributes online games. The company was said to be the sole distributor of World of Warcraft (WoW) in China back in 2000s. The company was established in 1999 by Zhu Jun, a known entrepreneur. He’s said to hold more than 80% of The9’s voting shares.

Telegram appears to be quite settled these days and are not scheduled to hold any ICOs. There was a previous report that Gram Asia in South Korea held an event to sell its rights to its tokens. Each token was priced at $4.00 each on the crypto exchange platform Liquid.

