Telegram’s TON Blockchain Officially Halted

This week, the messaging giant Telegram conceded its year-long battle against SEC regulators over the TON blockchain. According to reports, the company officially filed a stipulation withdrawing their appeal days ago. The news symbolizes the death of one of the most highly anticipated projects in the crypto space. Additionally, it represents continued pressure from regulators towards large social media-backed crypto projects.

The heartbreaking news came via a company blog post. In the notification, Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov makes his first public statement regarding the ongoing SEC trial. He explained the firm's choice to abandon the hard-fought project. Durov tells TON investors that the choice centered on the SEC judgment blocking the issuance of Gram tokens. It left the company unable to fulfill its responsibility to investors.

TON Blockchain – Play the Long Game

However, the abandonment may not be forever. The filing is simply an agreement by the SEC and Telegram to stop the court proceedings without judgment. It could be that Telegram seeks to play the long game now and let other companies fit the regulatory bill to set precedents in the market.

Telegram's woes originated from its record-breaking 2018 ICO. The company was able to secure $1.7 Billion in the crowdfunding event. Notably, this is the largest ICO to ever launch. As such, it wasn't a huge surprise to learn that regulators wanted more control over the project given the market response. Importantly, the funding was to go towards the constructions of the TON blockchain ecosystem.

Telegram TON Blockchain Application Withdrawal

Shortly into the venture, regulators took aim at the project. In October of 2019, the issuance of GRAM tokens was frozen after an SEC judgment halted any actions. Notably, Telegram appealed the decision but the appeal was dismissed by Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District Court of New York.

TON Blockchain – Investor Options

Following the injunction, Telegram provided investors with two options. Investors that wanted a refund could receive 72% of their initial investment back. In the past, Gram investors were hesitant to take the refund options because the upside potential of the project was great. However, as the SEC trial began to degrade their hopes, more investors caved to the pressure.

The second option was a bit more unique. Telegram offered to allow investors to convert their funds into a loan to the company. For their flexibility and patience, investors would receive 110% repayment. Telegram never mentioned publicly how many investors went this route.

Hard Forked TON Blockchain

Surprisingly, there is still some hope for the TON concept to live on. This month a group of advantageous developers released a hard fork of the project. The new blockchain goes by the name of Free TON and has the support of TON Labs. Importantly, TON Labs worked directly on the original TON ecosystem.

A TON of Bad News

It's sad to see Telegram forced to drop the TON concept for the time being. However, it will be interesting to see what route the firm takes now. Given the new hard fork, it appears that the market already has a TON community ready to brave the storm. For now, the news doesn't bode well for other major tech firms involved in SEC litigations.