Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project dies. It’s dead, done, finished, terminated. The company announced it’s pulling the plug on the troubled blockchain project.
The news come as no surprise to the crypto community. TON was mare in legal troubles from the start. However, the polarized project ceases to exit before it gets a chance to see daylight.
Why is Telegram cancelling Open Network (TON)?
In 2018, news broke that Telegram conducted a record breaking fund raising campaign. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started snooping into the company’s affairs soon after. All the funds poured into the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) were from wealthy investors during an .
On October 2019, the SEC filed an emergency action against Telegram Group Inc; the parent company, demanding an immediate halt of all activities related to the Open Network (TON) project.
How much did Telegram Initial Coin Offering (ICO) raised and how many tokens issued?
On a press release, the SEC claim the firm conducted an unregistered ICO. They charged that Telegram collected funds in the amount of $1.7 billion. What made the fund raising campaign illegal was that majority of investors live in the United States.
The SEC’s Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Stephanie Avakian wrote:
“Our emergency action today is intended to prevent Telegram from flooding the U.S. markets with digital tokens that we allege were unlawfully sold.”
Mrs. Avakian continued:
“We allege that the defendants have failed to provide investors with information regarding Grams and Telegram’s business operations, financial condition, risk factors, and management that the securities laws require.”
The smallest investment per individual was a whooping of $1 million. Telegram sold a total sum of 2.9 billion “Gram” tokens. Yet, those numbers are not close to an ICO highest supply. But, it’s the largest fund raised, to date, by any blockchain-based project.
Telegram’s CEO speaks out
Durov Spoke, Russian billionaire, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Telegram argued United States’ courts should not have the power to police and end cryptocurrency sales outside its borders.
Spoke is encouraging other current and prospective blockchain project developers to fight the SEC’s meddling in the advancement of decentralization. At press time, Telegram has declared Open Network (TON) blockchain dead.
Mathieu is a Information technology professional with over 15 years of experience. He started one of the first bitcoin blogs existed in 2010. He started writing about, investing in bitcoin and promoting the first cryptocurrency when only a few technological savvy people knew about it. Mathieu is a world traveler who enjoys culture, technology, finance, salmon, rice and beans. He’s cool, collected and knows a great deal about blockchain technology.
Source: https://www.cryptozink.io/telegram-open-network-blockchain-gram-token-is-dead/
