Telegram Wants to Delay the Launch of TON
- Investors in the project will need to vote on whether to delay the launch of the blockchain until next year, or get 77% of their money back.
- Because there were two funding rounds, there will be two groups of investors voting on the delay decision.
Illustration of the Telegram logo. TNW
Telegram wishes to push back the date for the launch of its Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain after it met trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On 11 October the U.S. SEC obtained a temporary restraining order, which prohibited Telegram from launching its network and distributing the Gram token (GRM) in the U.S., after deeming the token to be a security.
Five days later, Telegram sent an e-mail to its investors informing them that it wishes to delay the release of the network to 30 April, 2020.
The email further states that even though the launch deadline was scheduled for a late October, the SEC lawsuit makes that “unachievable”.
It further reads:
“We disagree with the SEC’s legal position and intend to vigorously defend the lawsuit. We are proposing to extend the deadline date in order to provide additional time to resolve the SEC’s lawsuit and work with other governmental authorities in advance of the launch of the TON network.”
In order for the extension to be approved, a majority of the investors need to give their consent by filling in a form.
As there were two fundraising rounds, one in February 2018 and another in March, the two groups of investors will need to vote separately, which could lead to one group approving the delay, and the other refusing.
In such a situation, the group that refused the delay will not receive their GRM tokens, but instead get back “approximately 77 percent” of their investment.
If the deadline extension is approved, the company will spend approximately $80 million before 30 April 2020.
Telegram has also asked its investor to fill in the form before October 23, as the firm is scheduled for a hearing with regulators on 24 October.
- Popular Telegram bot Unibot, which is used to snipe trades on Uniswap, became a victim of a token approval exploit earlier today, when it was switching to a new router.
- After confirming the exploit, Unibot assured users that their keys and wallets were safe, and that the project will compensate all affected users.
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- Signed by a judge on Friday, the final judgement requires Telegram to pay back $1.2 billion to investors.
- The firm will have 30 days to pay $18.5 million in penalties, and is also required to notify the SEC if it plans to issue another digital asset in the next 3 years.
- The firm has now dropped its appeal against the U.S. federal court’s injunction, which forbade the distribution of its Gram tokens.
- Though Telegram has thrown in the towel, the TON blockchain dream is not over, with the “Free TON” community’s launch of their own version of the project.