In a message dated May 12, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced that after a long struggle with the SEC, his company officially ceases its participation in the TON and Gram projects, which were launched back in 2017.
He also said that 96% of the world's inhabitants depend on the United States in terms of finance and technology.
“We made a difficult decision not to continue working on TON. <...>. I am writing this post to officially announce that the active participation of Telegram in TON is over, ”said Durov.
The work on the creation of the TON blockchain platform has been carried out for the last 2.5 years, and the project itself should have received the name Gram.
Pavel Durov calls the decision of the American court paradoxical, because he forbade the distribution of cryptocurrency not only in the United States, but throughout the world. After all, US residents may find an illegal way to access the platform in another country.
“This court decision implies that other countries do not have sovereignty to decide what is good and what is bad for their own citizens. If the USA suddenly decided to ban coffee and demanded that coffee shops in Italy be closed because some American could come there, we doubt that anyone agreed. ”
He also noted that the United States “can use its control of Apple and Google to remove applications from the App Store and Google Play. So yes, it’s true that other countries do not have full sovereignty in what they can be allowed on their territory. ”
Telegram vs SEC
It seems that this is a complete failure of Telegram in a long-standing legal struggle against the US SEC. The SEC filed a lawsuit against the company in October 2019, a few days before the planned launch of TON. In the lawsuit, the regulator accused Telegram of violating the "US Securities Act" by conducting an ICO of $ 1.7 billion in 2018.
In March 2020, a U.S. court stated that the SEC could well prove that GRAM is unregistered securities.
On April 30, Pavel Durov proposed a compensation plan for investors, apparently given such a court decision.
Launch of TON without Durov
If you did not follow, then Telegram in early 2018 announced a plan to launch the TON blockchain platform. To this end, Telegram Group Inc. and its subsidiary TON Issuer sold 2.9 billion tokens and raised $ 1.7 billion.
The first launch date is October 2019, but the SEC has secured a temporary injunction. As a result, Durov promised to return part of the attracted resources.
Investors agreed to postpone the launch date - April 30, 2010. And on March 24, the New York District Court recognized Gram as a security and temporarily banned the transfer of tokens to original buyers, including 175 investors.
Two weeks later, the TON development team launched its Free TON network, using software developments made earlier by the brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov.
He also said that 96% of the world's inhabitants depend on the United States in terms of finance and technology.
“We made a difficult decision not to continue working on TON. <...>. I am writing this post to officially announce that the active participation of Telegram in TON is over, ”said Durov.
The work on the creation of the TON blockchain platform has been carried out for the last 2.5 years, and the project itself should have received the name Gram.
Pavel Durov calls the decision of the American court paradoxical, because he forbade the distribution of cryptocurrency not only in the United States, but throughout the world. After all, US residents may find an illegal way to access the platform in another country.
“This court decision implies that other countries do not have sovereignty to decide what is good and what is bad for their own citizens. If the USA suddenly decided to ban coffee and demanded that coffee shops in Italy be closed because some American could come there, we doubt that anyone agreed. ”
He also noted that the United States “can use its control of Apple and Google to remove applications from the App Store and Google Play. So yes, it’s true that other countries do not have full sovereignty in what they can be allowed on their territory. ”
Telegram vs SEC
It seems that this is a complete failure of Telegram in a long-standing legal struggle against the US SEC. The SEC filed a lawsuit against the company in October 2019, a few days before the planned launch of TON. In the lawsuit, the regulator accused Telegram of violating the "US Securities Act" by conducting an ICO of $ 1.7 billion in 2018.
In March 2020, a U.S. court stated that the SEC could well prove that GRAM is unregistered securities.
On April 30, Pavel Durov proposed a compensation plan for investors, apparently given such a court decision.
Launch of TON without Durov
If you did not follow, then Telegram in early 2018 announced a plan to launch the TON blockchain platform. To this end, Telegram Group Inc. and its subsidiary TON Issuer sold 2.9 billion tokens and raised $ 1.7 billion.
The first launch date is October 2019, but the SEC has secured a temporary injunction. As a result, Durov promised to return part of the attracted resources.
Investors agreed to postpone the launch date - April 30, 2010. And on March 24, the New York District Court recognized Gram as a security and temporarily banned the transfer of tokens to original buyers, including 175 investors.
Two weeks later, the TON development team launched its Free TON network, using software developments made earlier by the brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov.