GRAM offerings, part 2. Trying to understand GRAM IGO

Following our previous analysis, we publish the second episode. In this post, we add four more exchanges to the list and try to find out what is an IGO.

Here are the new ones:

BISS

The announcement made by the exchange does not reveal any information regarding the Gram token being traded. Huge trading volumes look unrealistically evenly distributed.

BISS support was unable to answer our direct questions. Here is a screenshot of our short conversation (the last question has not been answered).

CoinEx

This is by far the most understandable and detailed offer among these four. Non-deliverable futures with up to 3x leverage and delivery in USDT difference after the mainnet launch. Trading volumes are much less than in the previous example, but still, look unrealistically distributed.

CoinBene & BiHODL

We grouped these two because their announcements (#1, #2) are almost word-for-word identical. Both offer Grams via something called IGO. While Coinbene (one of the top exchanges globally by reported trading volume) decided not to tell what IGO stands for, BiHODL vaguely explained: 

Initial Gift Offering (IGO): BiHODL has selected a number of high potential and excellent projects, purchased a certain amount of tokens through OTC trading, for the purpose of giving back to each supporter at a lower price. 

They even have a page named “Agreement of Initial Gift Offering”, which is highly questionable:

Each time you purchase any token, you represent and assure BIHODL that

... 3. you acknowledge, agree and understand token purchase is between you and its token issuer, where BiHODL only provide a place to facilitate your access to sale of token;

4. you are not participating in the token sale for any investment, speculative or other financial purposes.

In the announcements, neither BiHODL nor Coinbene talk about futures or any other derivative instruments – simply Grams. There is no evidence to believe that Grams on these exchanges will provide buyers with real Grams. Despite that, the offerings are limited in size implying that the exchanges sell something they own or will own. The price is quite low – 0.80 USDT, a 40% discount to the second-round price of the official Gram token sale. Both support teams did not answer our direct questions. So-called Grams are now traded on these exchanges without geographical restrictions.

Trading volumes on BiHODL are close to zero. Coinbene shows much higher numbers, but again, very suspicious ones (on average, 500k Grams traded every 4 hours, keeping in mind that the offering size was only 625k Grams).

Conclusion

We see how even the top exchanges by trading volume allow themselves to make such strange and unprofessional offerings like IGO. This once again proves that trading volumes in the crypto industry are widely manipulated and overall – an unreliable metric. You should not trust an exchange based only on its position in the rankings by volume.

Pretty much all existing Gram offerings are merely an attempt to catch the hype. It does not look like the initial investors are trying to take the profits in such a way. The only offer which stands out is the one made by Liquid exchange. It was well organized. And, overall, the sale of the first-round Grams at a 10x higher price before TON launch looked like a pretty good deal for the seller.

Behind the scenes of this battle for the hype, the race to be the first exchange to list on-chain Grams is in full swing. Yet it’s not good enough to be the first, exchanges will have to find sufficient liquidity for such an anticipated asset. Higher liquidity means a relatively lower price, more buyers and potentially higher purchasing capacity.

According to our information, to date at least a few exchanges are planning to list on-chain Grams right after TON launch. We are not ready to name them just yet since it’s difficult to 100% validate the seriousness of their intentions. We will keep you informed of any further updates.

THE FIRST PART >>

This post does not constitute any form of a legal, tax or investment advice. Neither it is a solicitation to buy or sell any asset, security or enter in any form of business relations. The post is for information purposes only.

This post was published in TON Board Telegram channel which was created by investors in the Telegram Open Network (TON) for investors in the TON and major holders of Grams. We publish confirmations and refutations of rumors, insights available to investors directly from the Telegram team, as well as analysis of documents and technical solutions provided to investors, and data on the development of the ecosystem and projects working in it.