Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Last year, Telegram Messenger raised $1.7 billion in a private ICO, selling coins named Grams at $1.33 a piece. Telegram plans to launch a blockchain-based payments network by the third quarter of this year. The company’s crypto efforts stand similar to that of Facebook, which recently unveiled its digital currency, Libra.

But the news here is that Telegram’s crypto may have risen 200% from last year as South Korea’s Gram Asia offered to sell rights to the Grams in its possession for $4 a piece [compared to $1.33 last year], according to Japanese crypto exchange Liquid. The Grams will be sold at a reduced $3.50 apiece if buyers purchase with Liquid’s own cryptocurrency, QASH, according to an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg.

The sale by Gram Asia comes at a time of high volatility in crypto markets. It should be noted that if Gram goes through with a sale, buyers won’t actually get their coins until Telegram launches its blockchain network. Such a sale also holds no relationship with Telegram [the original issuer of Gram tokens] as Gram Asia is selling rights to its own Grams purchased during Telegram’s last year ICO.

According to company documents, Telegram — led by famed Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov — is aiming to enable transaction speeds faster than the Ethereum and Blockchain networks and may look to compete with Visa and Mastercard, two of the world’s largest payments networks. Grams are planned to be used for payments for different services — including decentralized data storage, user apps and bypassing censorship — on Telegram’s blockchain.

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