TON investors refused to return the invested money before resolving the dispute with the SEC

Investors of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project refused to return the invested money until the situation with the allegations by the SEC clears up and are ready to wait for the platform to launch before April 30.

This decision was made by a majority vote of investors participating in both rounds of project financing. Given that investors are ready to show loyalty and wait for the launch of TON before April 30, Telegram can spend on the development of the platform another $ 80 million from the $ 1.7 billion that were collected in two rounds of ICO.

Telegram sent investors a notification that if most of them vote for a refund and do not sign an additional agreement, their current agreement with the company will be canceled and the funds returned.

Telegram invited investors to return only 77% of their investment a week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) secured a temporary injunction against the issuance and sale of Gram tokens. As a result, Telegram had to postpone the launch of the platform, which was supposed to take place before the end of October. The Commission considered Gram tokens to be securities not registered under the Securities Act of 1933. As a result, the Commission accused Telegram of illegally conducting an ICO.

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Telegram later turned to the New York State District Court to lift the provisional ban, arguing that Gram tokens are not securities. However, the court postponed the hearing until February of next year. At the same time, in their appeal to investors, Telegram representatives indicated that they are considering this development in a positive manner, since the company will have more time to prepare to defend its position.

One of the investors who voted in anticipation of the TON launch was QIWI founder Sergey Solonin, who invested $ 17 million in the project. Out of 171 investors in Gram, apart from him, only the founder of Wimm-Bill-Dann, David Yakobashvili, is known, who declined to comment.

During the first investment round, Gram tokens cost $ 0.37, in the second round it is already $ 1.33. According to the forecast of the founders of the project, tokens in the free sale will cost $ 3.62. The declared goal of the Durovs is to create a “blockchain on which the new generation virtual currency and decentralized applications will work”, SEC notes.

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Lawyers interviewed by Izvestia believe that the rest of the investors will wait for the dispute to be resolved with the SEC, however, with a high degree of probability it can be assumed that the TON project has certain agreements with brokers, banks and other financial intermediaries, which will be long and expensive to replay. If tokens are not transferred to investors on time, Pavel Durov will have to pay forfeits and bear other expenses.

The court will hold hearings in the Telegram case in February 2020, and in the interests of the Durov brothers to resolve all issues with the SEC as soon as possible. Otherwise, firstly, there is a risk of losing the US market, and secondly, competing fintech projects, for example, Facebook’s Libra, are more likely to agree with regulators and begin to implement their payment solutions.