"There's a lock-up for the ICO, meaning investors won't receive their TON tokens, or Grams, until December 2018, at the earliest. The company doesn't expect those tokens to be listed on a major exchange until 2019.
That lock-up is one reason why cryptocurrency hedge funds are staying away from the red-hot deal.
"It's a high risk, high reward gamble," Joe DiPasquale, the founder of crypto fund of funds BitBull Capital, which is close to overseeing $20 million in capital, told Business Insider in an interview. "And the risk of having money locked up for almost a year until launch, and up to 18 months after that launch - I've personally made the decision to sit on the sidelines."
DiPasquale also expressed concern about the valuation of the ICO.
"It values them at about $1 billion," he said. "Think about how many crypto assets that are over a billion, about 26."
Not to mention, the crypto market has been on a big retreat since the beginning of the year. The entire market for digital coins is 50% lower than where it was at the beginning of 2018, according to
CoinMarketCap data.
Sean Keegan, the chief executive of Digital Asset Strategies, told Business Insider that lock-up and valuation are part of why he isn't getting in on the action, but he also has concerns about a big target on the company's back: the Russian government.
"Even though the firm is based in Dubai, the Russian government has been trying to go after their data," Keegan said.
As noted by Bloomberg, the messaging app, which was founded by Russian-native Pavel Durov, has been a target of the Kremlin.
In September, Bloomberg reported Russia's main intelligence agency told the company "it is obliged under Russian law passed last year to hand over keys allowing the government to decrypt any communications transmitted over it.""
http://uk.businessinsider.com/teleg...-investors-arent-touching-it-2018-2?r=US&IR=T
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=TELEGRAM+ICO
