Telegram has become the second major messaging app (after Kik) to explore blockchain technology, including its own cryptocurrency.

TechCrunch reports that the company is planning to launch the ‘Telegram Open Network’, funded by an initial coin offering (ICO) that could raise as much as $500m.

The report claims that Telegram’s aim is “to launch an entirely new blockchain, using the Telegram’s 180 million users as rocket fuel to power forward into mainstream adoption off cryptocurrency and making Telegram, effectively, a kingmaker of other cryptocurrencies, because of its existing scale”.

Its cryptocurrency will be called ‘Gram’ and could be used by people to make payments across borders without fees, and protected by Telegram’s encryption technology. The ICO would be the largest to date.

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