Steve Jobs’ widow allegedly invested over $5m in Telegram’s Gram token

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Updated on Mar 11, 2020

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According to a source familiar with the matter, one of the 39 American investors who purchased Telegram's Gram tokens was a widow of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs.
Laurene Powell Jobs, who has become a well-known businesswoman in the US, invested at least $5 million into Gram tokens, although the exact amount remains unknown.
Despite the conflict with the regulators, Telegram kept working on its platform, and the firm released a public note about the token and its upcoming network in early 2020.

The widow of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, seems to have developed an interest in cryptocurrencies over the last several years. As revealed by Laurene Powell Jobs seemingly invested a large amount into Telegram’s cryptocurrency project, buying $5 million worth of Gram tokens during the project’s ICO.

The source did not reveal the full amount that was invested, but it is known that $5 million was the minimum entry amount during the blockchain project’s pre-sale funding round, meaning that she had to invest at least that much.

After her husband’s passing in 2011, the widow inherited around $20 billion. These days, she acts as a businesswoman, philanthropist, as well as executive as a social change organization, Emerson Collective.

Telegram’s troubles with the US regulators

As for Telegram itself, the company held its ICO in early 2018, and it managed to raise around $1.7 billion. Since then, the company has had constant regulatory issues with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which held off the launch of the project to this day.

The problem that the SEC has with the project is the fact that it allegedly never registered its token sale, which is a violation of US law. Meanwhile, the US investors bought over 1 billion Gram tokens, each of which had a price a bit under $1.

Another thing worth noting is that the huge amount that Telegram managed to raise came from only 39 American investors, with Laurene Powell being one of them. In total, investors around the world bought around 2.9 billion Gram tokens, as the SEC reported.

The regulator then halted the token offering in late 2019, due to the belief that it was unlawfully sold. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement’s Stephanie Avakian noted that the SEC alleges that the defendants failed to provide information about the tokens and Telegram’s business, as well as a number of other aspects.