Gram Asia announces public sale of TON on Liquid crypto platform

Liquid.com will be leading the public sale of Telegram Open Network (TON). Gram is the native token of TON Blockchain, a  decentralized network being developed by privacy focused messaging platform Telegram. 

The Gram public sale will be hosted on the Liquid platform ("Gram token sale"). The Gram token sale has been highly anticipated by the public markets and can only be bought once it is released on secondary listing platforms such as Liquid. Liquid had hosted its own Qash token sale successfully in 2017, selling out 350 million Qash tokens, equivalent to US$105 million, in three days.

 Liquid is the exclusive platform for the Gram token sale globally. The Gram token sale will take place on Liquid on the July 10th 2019, 8am UTC. Participants of the Gram token sale on Liquid will be able to purchase Grams with the following currencies: USD and USDC. All Gram token sale participants on Liquid will need to have a verified and funded Liquid account in order to qualify for the offering. Minimum electronic verification requirements to participate in the Gram token sale include submitting a government ID and a selfie. All documents can be submitted online on Liquid, with the assistance of a 24/7 live chat team. 

Liquid will have TON-compatible wallets integrated into its platform, where Gram token sale participants will have their Grams delivered upon the launch of the public mainnet launch of the TON Blockchain, which is expected to take place by October 31st, 2019. All proceeds from the Gram token sale will be kept in custody of Liquid and will be fully refunded in the event the TON mainnet is not launched. 

Telegram Open Network is hoping to become  a fast and inherently scalable decentralized multi-blockchain architecture, designed to be the first mass-market cryptocurrency project. Relying on its 10-year experience of building highly-encrypted distributed data storage systems in user-friendly interfaces, Telegram is uniquely positioned to realize a truly decentralized digital economy saturated with goods and services sold for Grams. Telegram will drive demand for the TON blockchain by leveraging its existing ecosystem of developers, publishers, payment providers, merchants and most importantly, its 260 million users. 

In April, a private beta testing of the TON testnet has been launched to a limited number of global developers. Preliminary findings from setting up TON blockchain nodes in these developer labs revealed "extremely high transaction speed", as reported by Russian-language business daily Vedomosti. In the same month, TON Labs, an independent company focused on developing the core infrastructure projects for TON, inked a partnership with Wirecard AG, a global payments services company, to develop a joint platform for digital financial services, payments and banking. 

Mike Kayamori, co-founder and CEO of Liquid said: "We are excited to be partnering with Gram Asia to launch the Gram token sale, which is wonderful news to our community who are native users of Telegram. We share the vision for a more secure and open value transfer system in order to enable the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. The TON Blockchain infrastructure can help enhance Telegram's current capabilities as a peer to peer network of value, with the launch of their cryptocurrency light wallets for Telegram's highly engaged user base." 

Dongbeom Kim, founder and CEO of Gram Asia said: "The Gram token sale is the first step towards The Open Network, a truly decentralized form of TON blockchain. Gram Asia, as the largest holder of Grams from Asia, is excited to bring the opportunity for retail investors to join the TON ecosystem. As the first Japan FSA licensed global exchange, Liquid has demonstrated strong governance capabilities for protecting its users; therefore, I firmly believe Liquid is the right partner to launch this historic token sale. We are excited to invite all believers in Telegram's vision, globally and in Asia, to build on top of TON, leveraging the critical mass of Telegram's user base."