Telegram’s TON Investors Decide to Stick With the Project

Investors in Telegram’s $1.7 billion Gram (GRM) token sale have decided to stick with the project and not to demand their funds back, Forbes Russia reported on 23 October.

According to the report, two sources close to the Telegram team said that the two groups of investors, from both funding rounds, have agreed to accept the extension of the Telegram Open Network (TON) launch.

The proposal was first sent to investors a week after the SEC decided that the GRM token sale was unlawful.

Originally, the launch of the network, and the issuance of the GRM token, was planned for a late October launch, but on 11 October the U.S. SEC obtained a temporary restraining order against the project, deeming the ICO as an unregistered digital token offering.

A week later, the team behind TON sent a proposal to its investors, saying that they could either agree to delay the launch until 30 April 2020, or get a 77% refund of their investment.

As there were two funding rounds for the project, there were two groups of investors that had to decide on the outcome of the proposal, which could have resulted in one getting a portion of their investment back, while the other kept their right to the GRM token.

Now that Telegram has its investors’ endorsement to delay the launch, it can also spend another $80 million before the April launch.

Telegram had a 24 October court hearing to determine if GRM is a security, but that got postponed to 18-19 February 2020.

In another letter to its investors, the Telegram team said that the postponement was a positive development, as it would give them time to prepare.

The letter reads:

“The February hearings are different from those scheduled for October 24, because they will only consider the possible postponement of the launch of the platform. We and our advisers will use the time to ensure that at the February hearing, Telegram’s position is presented and supported as much as possible.”