Telegram’s troubled TON blockchain has seen its prospective launch delayed again, this time by a year to April 2021. In a letter to investors seen by CoinDesk, Telegram has bowed to pressure from the lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has postponed the launch of TON until next year. In addition, it is also offering to return up to 72% of funds per investor for those who want to bail on the project, with an alternative for those who still want to support the project.
More Delays for TON
Telegram announced the first delay to their blockchain in October 2019 shortly after the SEC successfully appealed to a US court to halt the distribution of Gram tokens. This put the launch date back to yesterday, April 30, 2020, at the same time offering investors “approximately 77 percent” of their money back, with the actual action based on a majority vote.
With this deadline about to expire, Telegram sent out an investor letter where they repeated the offer, this time lowering the amount to 72%, giving investors an alternative – to lend Telegram their investment until the supposed launch date next year in return for more tokens:
As a token of gratitude for your trust in TON, we are also offering you an alternative option to receive 110% of your original investment by April 30, 2021, which is 53% higher than the Termination Amount.
Telegram to Fund Debt if TON is Scrapped
Telegram acknowledges that it is in discussions with the SEC over the case, but adds that investors might have to settle for “potentially another cryptocurrency on the same terms as those in their original Purchase Agreements” if they don’t get their Grams when the whole saga concludes.
If everything goes south and the project is abandoned however, Telegram will be in a position to pay off investors using company equity, stating that the company’s equity value “will exceed the aggregate amount of its potential debt…by at least several times.”
