Last year Telegram conducted a $1.7 billion investment round for its Telegram Open Network that was only open for accredited investors. It has now revealed that its native GRAM Tokens will be made available through a public sale.

Liquid.io, the cryptocurrency exchange selected for the public issuance of the GRAM token, mentioned that the sale is expected to go live on July 10, 2019, at 8 AM UTC. All users with a verified and funded Liquid account will be able to buy GRAM tokens using USD or USDC.

Not the Perfect Telegram Press Release

Telegram’s blockchain project has been highly anticipated, but it seems that not everyone can be a part of its public sale. According to the press release, citizens of Korea, the U.S., and Japan among 49 other countries are prohibited from participating in the sale.

Another thing to note about the press release is that it states Liquid hasn’t made a deal with Telegram directly, but with Gram Asia, which is alleged to hold the largest number of GRAM tokens. Nothing related to the number of tokens being issued or the price per token is mentioned either.

In addition, another strange problem with the announcement was that it didn’t mention any quotes from Telegram founders or the company’s blockchain team leaders — not how press releases are normally issued.

Plans For the Future of TON

TON had its test-net launch in April and the company plans to go for a full launch by October of this year. The deal to sell tokens on Liquid can very well be considered as Gram Asia’s strategy to dump tokens before a product launch.

Concerning this, TechCrunch reached out to the Liquid Exchange CEO Mike Kayamori, who stated that it wasn’t the case. ‘The TON project is moving along per its plan and is achieving its goals — the public sale of GRAM tokens is also part of the same,’ he reassured.

‘They wanted to work with a regulated exchange to see how it goes before it gets listed [in full] in October,’ claimed Kayamori.

Despite the assurance provided by him, the lack of any official statements from Telegram combined with the existing flaws in the announcement made by Liquid, everything about the sale still seems fishy.

What is your take on the GRAM token sale announcement? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.