Telegram investors agree to postponement of TON launch date

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• The Telegram investors have allegedly agreed to the postponement of the start date for the Telegram Open Network (TON). 
• Forbes Russia reported that anonymous sources from the Telegram environment, reported this. An official statement will follow today. 

As the Russian Forbes reports, the Telegram investors have agreed to postpone the launch of the Telegram Open Network (TON) until April 30, 2020. This is not yet official news. Instead, Russia’s Forbes quotes “two sources close to the Telegram team”. One source told Forbes that Telegram will officially announce the decision today.

As CNF reported, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an urgent lawsuit and injunction against Telegram Group Inc. and its subsidiary TON Issuer on October 11, 2019. The SEC accuses the two companies of selling an unregistered security in the US and abroad. According to the SEC, Telegrams GRAM Token is a security that requires approval by U.S. law makers

The majority votes to postpone the launch of TON

Last week Telegram therefore wrote a letter to its investors that the deadline for the launch of the Telegram Open Network, which was originally scheduled for October 30, 2019, is not feasible due to the SEC lawsuit. However, the postponement required an investor approval from the first and second funding rounds. Otherwise, the investors would have been entitled to a refund of approximately 77 percent of their funds.

However, the majority of Telegram’s investors have allegedly agreed to postpone the launch of TON and will therefore not reclaim their funds. As Forbes Russia reports, a majority of votes in both financing rounds refused to reclaim the money. These investors had to sign a form approving the extension before 23 October.

As a result of the decision, Telegram will be able to spend another $80 million out of a total of $1.7 billion by April to drive the development of the project forward.

Court hearing in February

As part of the SEC’s lawsuit, the court date for Telegram, originally scheduled for today, October 24, 2019, was postponed to February 18 and 19. The lawsuit will focus on whether GRAM is a security within the terms of U.S. laws.

Telegram considers the postponement of the hearing a positive sign, according to the Forbes report (freely translated):

The February hearings differ from the previous October 24 hearings as these hearings should only take into account the possible postponement of the launch of the platform. We and our consultants will use this time to ensure that Telegram’s position is presented and supported as far as possible at the February hearing.