BlackRock to join Telegram’s $1.5B bond sale: WSJ

BlackRock, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin holders, is reportedly participating in a bond raise by crypto-friendly messenger Telegram.

Telegram is expected to raise at least $1.5 billion in a bond issue on May 28, with support from existing backers like BlackRock and Abu Dhabi’s investment firm Mubadala, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As part of the sale, Telegram is offering investors five-year bonds at a 9% yield, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Telegram plans to use the proceeds to buy back remaining debt from bonds issued in 2021, which are due to mature in March 2026.

Apart from existing Telegram bondholders like BlackRock and Mubadala, the sale is also expected to bring new investors, including the US hedge fund firm Citadel.

The WSJ report came weeks after Bloomberg first reported on Telegram's bond sale in late April, with sources claiming that the company was holding investor meetings about a bond sale worth about $2 billion to refinance its debut debt offering from 2021.

According to the Financial Times, Telegram’s new bond offering will allow investors to buy shares in a potential initial public offering at a 20% discount, mirroring the terms of previous bond sales.

While Telegram has not issued any official statement regarding the bond sale, its CEO, Pavel Durov, has teased the public with his upcoming visit to Dubai next week.

Soon after the WSJ broke the news, Durov took to X to deliver a short statement: “I’ll be in Dubai the first week of June — good news ahead.”

The expected visit would mark Durov’s second entrance to Dubai since the Telegram CEO was arrested in France in August 2024 and prohibited from leaving the country after being released on bail amid an ongoing probe into the messenger.

Durov previously traveled to Dubai after receiving permission to do so from a French court in March.

Telegram’s $1.5 billion bond sale is the “only way to get exposure to Telegram equity early,” Mikko Ohtamaa, co-founder of algorithmic trading firm Trading Strategy, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

He stressed that the bond offering has “very credible investors,” which solidifies its position on the market.

News of Telegram’s bond offering came the same day as Durov announced a $300 million deal with Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate xAI’s Grok AI chatbot into the messenger.

Cointelegraph approached BlackRock and Telegram for comment regarding the bond raise, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

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