Messaging app, Telegram is set to launch its cryptocurrency, the Gram, in October.

As reported by the New York Times, three investors in the company’s $1.7 billion private initial coin offering said Telegram would issue the first tokens within two months.

According to a Coin Telegraph report, the long-term objective for executives is to make Gram available to all of the company’s 300 million users, said the investors.

Should the move go ahead, Telegram would surpass Facebook’s Libra in introducing a public global digital currency.

The New York Times added that there has been little technical information released in relation to Gram, and hardly any attention has arisen from regulators, when compared with the reaction to Facebook’s Libra.

As previously reported by Coin Telegraph, Telegram cancelled the public stage of its initial coin offering, while a number of entities are looking to sell Gram tokens unofficially, often at elevated prices.

Back in May last year, the Wall Street Journal reported: “The popular messaging app Telegram has brought in so much money from a small group of private investors that it is calling off a planned sale of cryptocurrency to the wider investing public, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“Telegram Group Inc. has pulled in $1.7 billion by selling newly created cryptocurrency to fewer than 200 private investors.”

Furthermore, Telegram would also beat the People’s Bank of China – who is eager to launch a competitor to Libra – following its announcement earlier this week that a rollout for its cryptocurrency would get underway on November 11.

However, according to UK-based author David Gerard, who published Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, “I don’t see how on earth Telegram can possibly get something compliant with regulators in place by the end of October.

"Telegram’s plans for Gram look very like Facebook’s plans for Libra — a large network runs a token as a private interchange currency, with completely private issuance, with questionable backing," he said in a recent blog post.