Little-Known Exchange Claims It Will Be First to Sell Telegram's TON Tokens

When Telegram launches its long-awaited blockchain sometime this month or next, the go-to marketplace for the new gram tokens could be a fledgling exchange with fewer than 4,000 users.

Blackmoon's CEO, Oleg Seydak, is also the CEO of Gram Vault, the Swiss custodian, and the companies plan to work together to provide those large investors with a marketplace to sell their tokens.

Unlike a number of exchanges that conducted sales of futures-like instruments based on grams, Blackmoon will be the only marketplace to sell real grams directly from legitimate TON investors as soon as the mainnet is live, said chief operating officer Sergey Vasin.

According to people familiar with the TON development and investment processes, Blackmoon is a part of a network of loosely affiliated entities working with Telegram on the infrastructure for the blockchain and token.

Alexander Filatov, of TON Labs, which is working on tools for TON developers, told CoinDesk that Gram Vault "Is working on the first-to-market custody solution for the gram with a number of reputable international partners."

Once the gram token is issued, Vasin expects the number to jump up to 15,000 in the days after the mainnet launch.

Vasin said Blackmoon is targeting both retail investors and sophisticated algorithmic traders who would come to the exchange for real gram liquidity.

"Gram Vault is a joint venture between some of the biggest investors in the Telegram Open Network who invested over $600 million in both rounds of the deal," said Alfredo Orrego, Blackmoon's chief business development officer, adding that the company originated out of the need for a compliant, institutional-grade custody solution for such clients.

Operating under the legal name Swiss Digital Group, Gram Vault exclusively serves investors who participated in the initial token sale, Orrego said.

"Gram Vault's trading desk will use Blackmoon alongside other liquidity providers to trade Grams for its users. Blackmoon committed to allocate necessary resources for the technical integration with TON and the Gram listing."