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Despite criticism related to its potential blockchain-based business model and the apparent lack of governance on its tokens, Telegram has raised a whopping $850m in its ICO... so far! It appears this amount represents the token pre-sale only.
If confirmed, the raise is by far the largest seen for any ICO to date. According to CoinDesk's ICO Tracker, the previous record was the token sale by Tezos, which raised $232 million last year. Filecoin and Bancor raised more than $200 million and $150 million in the same year, respectively. The amount raised was revealed in an SEC notice of securities exemption, which also indicates that the firm aims to use the funds for "the development of the TON Blockchain, the development and maintenance of Telegram Messenger and the other purposes described in the offering materials."
https://www.coindesk.com/850-million-raised-in-ico-so-far-says-telegram/
