Telegram offers investors refund from $1.7 billion token sale

Telegram, the group behind the eponymous 400-million-strong messaging app, reportedly intends to return $1.2 billion of investors’ money raised in a 2018 token sale for its upcoming blockchain network. It also plans to further delay the launch of the network, which has been held up by a lawsuit with the SEC.

According to a letter to investors obtained by CoinDesk, Telegram is offering to give back up to 72% of each investors’ stake. Else, Telegram is offering investors “an alternative option to receive 110% of your original investment by April 30, 2021, which is 53% higher than the Termination Amount."

Telegram reportedly told investors that it is "continuing to engage in discussions with the relevant authorities” and that investors could be entitled to "Grams or potentially another cryptocurrency on the same terms as those in their original Purchase Agreements."

The decision to return investors’ money is expected: in its initial purchase agreements for the Telegram Open Network’s token sale, Telegram had always agreed to return money should the network not launch by its deadline. 

TON was originally supposed to launch in October 2019, but then revised its deadline to accommodate for a lawsuit with the SEC, which claims that its token sale, which raised a total of $1.7 billion, was an unregistered securities sale and was thus illegal.

Telegram hits 400 million users while SEC prevents TON launch

The messenger app Telegram on Friday announced that it has hit 400 million unique monthly users—with at least 1.5 million new people signing up to the platform every day.  But due to an ongoing court case with the SEC, those 400 million users won’t have direct access to the upcoming blockchain network, the Telegram Open Network.  The blockchain network was supposed to monetize Telegram’s hundreds of millions of users. Currently, Telegram doesn’t run ads and relies on the reserves of its billiona...

The case is still being battled in the courts, though the judge presiding over the case, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the New York Southern District Court, wrote in a letter last month that the SEC “has shown a substantial likelihood of success in proving that Telegram’s present plan to distribute Grams is an offering of securities.”

A temporary injunction against TON is still in place. Will it ever launch?