Social media websites like Facebook and Telegram, once known for connecting people, have recently shown a keen interest in the cryptocurrency market, both announcing their individual cryptocurrencies. On the one hand, Facebook’s Libra has been long deliberating its impact over the world economy with global regulators. On the other hand, Telegram’s Gram token which is set to launch on 31 October has now received support from Anchorage, a digital asset custodian.
Anchorage, which is also one of 28 founding members of the Libra Association, announced its support for Telegram’s upcoming cryptocurrency through a blog. It read,
“Anchorage Trust Company is the first Qualified Custodian that will support institutional custody for Gram at launch on October 31.”
The support for this digital custodian will enable institutional investors and organizations developing products and services on Telegram’s Open Network [TON] to hold Gram tokens securely. The interest from institutional investors has been strong and this was reflected in its pre-sales when Telegram sold $1.7 billion of Gram. This sale was carried out through two private placements in 2018, despite regulatory scrutiny impacting its public initial coin offering.
The token will be available for purchase on the open market and through the TON reserve, meant to counterbalance each other and stabilize the price and supply for Gram. According to the blog,
“The TON Reserve will incrementally increase the price of new Grams with every Gram sold following an exponentially increasing function: the first Gram will be priced at $0.10, and every subsequent Gram will be sold for one billionth more than the previous price.”
However, the free market price of the token may differ from the price in the TON reserves. Following the private placements in 2018, Gram’s vault had signed up over a third of the investors. However, Anchorage is now the first institutional custodian based in the U.S to offer support.
