Telegram Is Not Willing to Share Details of Its Gram Token Sale

06. Jan 2020 Posted by Akolkar B on News

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been pinning down messaging giant Telegram for the token sale of its native Gram tokens. Just before the SEC was to release the Gram tokens to its investors in October 2019, the SEC halted the process saying that Telegram sold this tokens as unregistered securities.

In the latest development, the SEC has said that Telegram has refused to share the details of the token sale with the regulator. The SEC has now released a court order that would compel the messaging giant to reveal how it had raised funds through it token sale in the last two years.

In the court order, the plaintiff the SEC) wrote: “Plaintiff respectfully moves to compel Defendants to answer questions and provide documents regarding the amounts, sources, and use of funds raised from investors in connection with the unregistered sale of securities at issue in this case”.

Over the last two years, Telegram has reportedly raised $1.7 billion for the development of its blockchain - Telegram One Network (TON) - and its native cryptocurrency. The project also involves integrating the Telegram messaging application with the TON blockchain network.

The SEC said that “Defendants are now refusing to disclose the bank records concerning how they have spent the $1.7 billion they raised from investors in the past two years and to answer questions about the disposition of investor funds.”

The regulator further added that “The requested bank records are highly relevant to the issues in dispute in this case, including how much money Telegram has spent, and in what manner, in developing the TON Blockchain, the Telegram Messenger application to be integrated with the TON Blockchain, and related applications”.

Now, the fresh rift with the SEC has forced to delay the launch of its TON blockchain. Earlier, Telegram also agreed to refund its investors after the SEC blocked the launch. However, the investors showed willingness to stay with the project until things work out.

As a result, the SEC has postponed its launch of TON blockchain to April 2020. Hopefully, things get resolved amicably and we can see major industry players joining the blockchain bandwagon.