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Telegram’s much-anticipated Gram token pre-sale has been canceled and all funds have been returned to investors, said Japan-based crypto exchange Liquid.

Elaborating on the reasons behind the cancellation, Liquid explained:

“At the time of the Gram Token Sale on Liquid, it was anticipated that the TON [Telegram Open Network] mainnet would be launched by 31 October 2019. As most Liquid users may know, the TON mainnet was not launched by that date and still has not launched.”

Further, the exchange that launched the pre-sale in July 2019 went on to say that all participants would be reimbursed:

“Under the Gram Token Sale Terms of Sale, Liquid is required to return all funds committed by Liquid users in the Gram Token Sale due to the fact that the TON mainnet was not launched by 30 November 2019.”

The company did not elaborate on the results of the pre-sale last year.

In either case, recently, the major instant messaging company stressed that “Grams don’t exist yet, nobody can buy or sell them before we announce the launch of TON Blockchain.” (As previously reported, Telegram was said to be looking to East Asia – and specifically exchanges in Japan – to debut the Gram.)

Also, Telegram confirmed that its TON Wallet will not be integrated with their messenger service, prompting comments that this is a “massive blow to TON investors.”

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The token pre-sale was originally announced by Liquid last summer, but the tokens were not to be released to the public until the TON mainnet – which is crucial to support the tokens – had gone live.

In July 2019, the Gram went on pre-sale at the price of USD 4, or 201% more than Telegram’s investors paid in the second initial coin offering (ICO) round in March 2018.

As is already known, the TON network launch has faced a number of difficulties and delays, with reports from October last year suggesting that the launch would be postponed by “six months to a year.” Also as reported, Telegram’s GRAM project has faced legal hurdles along the way, with company representatives scheduled to appear in court on February 18 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against it.

The lawsuit was filed by the SEC in October last year in order to halt the token sale, which the U.S. financial regulator says violates registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.

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