SEC stops TON & GRAM protecting US investors and classifies GRAM as security

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has “filed an emergency claim and issued an injunction” against two offshore entities behind Telegram TON’s digital token offer.

According to the complaint of the SEC, the Telegram Group and TON Issuer Inc. sold “approx. 2.9 billion digital tokens called “GRAM” at discounted prices to 171 first-time buyers worldwide, including more than 1 billion GRAM to 39 US buyers “.

Telegram also promised to deliver his Gram tokens to first time buyers by October 31st. The SEC alleges that Telegram and TON Issuer Inc. have not registered the sale and offering of GRAM and states that the tokens are “securities”.

SEC stops TON & GRAM protecting US investors and classifies GRAM as security

Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC Division of Enforcement said:

    Today’s emergency response is designed to prevent Telegram from flooding the US markets with digital tokens that we claim have been unlawfully sold.

    We claim that the defendants have failed to provide investors with information about the business of Gram and Telegram, the financial condition, the risk factors and the management required by the Securities Law. “

Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC Division of Enforcement, confirmed this and added the following:

    We have repeatedly stated that issuers can not avoid securities laws by simply labeling their product as a cryptocurrency or digital token

    Telegram strives to take advantage of a public offer without fulfilling the long-standing disclosure requirements to protect investors.

It was not until the beginning of this week that Telegram officially announced the official connection to TON & GRAM and included the terms of use on its official website. It will be exciting to see how the much-anticipated project will continue. Because even if a part is stopped, the rest of the world is not under the hammer of the SEC.

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