By
Steve Muchoki
May 10th, 2024
Messaging app Telegram postponed the launch of its TON blockchain for the second time, pushing the dates up to April 2021. The company is offering 72% of each investor’s stake now but is also providing an alternative of 110% of the investments by April 30, 2021.
After battling with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the messaging app Telegram has given in into the lawsuit pressures. According to a letter that was sent out to the TON investors, which was obtained by CoinDesk, Telegram pushed the launch of its TON blockchain up until a time like now next year.
As a result, the company is offering to return up to 72% of each investor’s stake, if the investor terminates the original deal at the moment. However, the investors have an option to choose to give Telegram a year with their money and get 110% of their original investment by April 30, 2021.
“As a token of gratitude for your trust in TON, we are also offering you an alternative option to receive 110% by April 30, 2021, which is 53% higher than the termination amount,” the letter stated.
The letter also clarified that the company is continuing to engage in discussions with the relevant authorities, and depending on how the negotiations go, investors could still receive Grams or any other cryptocurrency.
The news was a huge relief to the investors, whereby most are likely to take the latter deal to get a value for their investment. “The terms are really good, I think a lot of investors will choose to keep their money in Telegram due to the promise of additional returns,” founder of QIWI, Sergey Solonin stated.
Telegram and TON Blockchain Investment
According to Solonin, there is capital value in choosing to work with Telegram, even if the company will not be allowed to issue Grams. Telegram broke the long silence in the letter after the March 24 ruling, which had made most investors worried.
It was reported that the company had been planning to launch the project just days before the final decision to postpone. Telegram had prepared to launch its Telegram Open Network (TON), whereby fresh commits had been added to the TON repository on GitHub.
The company had been testing several of TON related projects before the ruling, whereby the website ton.org went online almost the same time GitHub added TON. The website contained the source code for TON.
Telegram has been getting huge support from several companies, which have been eyeing to invest in it despite the injunction. However, according to Carlton Fields attorney Andrew Hinkes, doing so could attract more friction with the U.S. courts.
“If the court finds that the injunction was violated, it has broad discretion to fashion a remedy that would either coerce compliance or compensate the party seeking to enforce the injunction, including fines and incarceration,” explained he.