On 11 October 2019 the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action in Manhattan against Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. (press release 2019-212) and obtained a temporary restraining order. The complaint says the companies raised more than $1.7 billion from January 2018 by selling about 2.9 billion Gram tokens to 171 initial purchasers worldwide, including more than a billion Grams to 39 US buyers, without registering the offering. Delivery was tied to launching the Telegram Open Network by 31 October 2019. The SEC’s theory is that Grams are securities and that a private sale followed by a public dump is still an offering to the US market. Telegram Messenger continuing to send stickers is not a defence.
A 2020 injunction, then a settlement that returned money and paid a penalty, is later. EOS’s 2018 mainnet is a different ICO-and-launch story. Do not hang those later stamps on this Friday.
What happened
A messaging company financed a blockchain with a discounted token promised at launch. US registration law cares about how the money was raised and who was meant to receive the coins, not about whether the chat client is useful. A TRO is a court telling you to stop the next step, not a verdict on cryptography.
Why it matters
If you bought Grams, you were a party to a purchase agreement that a US regulator called an unregistered security. If you only use Telegram to message, this docket is not your wallet. See how to read a crypto headline without getting played. A white paper is not a prospectus.
What happens next
Delayed launch talk, then a fight in SDNY. We will not treat a complaint as a price on any token. Nothing here is legal advice, and it is not an instruction to buy, sell, or hold Grams, bitcoin, or ether.
