The launch of Telegram’s cryptocurrency, Gram token has been canceled by the Japanese crypto exchange firm, Liquid over the Telegram Open Network’s (TON) launch delay.



Liquid announced this Jan 10 after Telegram was delayed in issuing its crypto. Telegram was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and forced it to cancel the sale, despite it being the first exchange to hold a public sale of the token.



Initially, when Gram token was being sold in July 2019, it was believed that the network would go live on October 31, however, SEC’s investigation into the initial sales delayed it as it was said to be unregistered sales of security.



This has been a bone of contention between both parties since it began. The prolonged court battle also lead to the postponement of Gram’s launch in November 2019. It also lead to the deposition of the Telegram founder himself, Parel Durov, along with two more senior employees before the US SEC.



Telegram, SEC issues

According to the SEC, Telegram’s native token Gram, in fact, qualifies as security; however, the company has failed to make the registration accordingly. Thus, the SEC recently assumed a stricter approach and demanded that Telegram produces complete financial records from the last two years. However, in a court filing Telegram declined this request and refused to share its financial records with the SEC.



The court, however, granted the company till February 26 to hand over all the documents to the SEC. The next meeting between the SEC and Telegram will be in the federal court on February 18.



Since Jan 10, when Liquid announced it’s canceling the sale of Telegram’s Gram token, it detailed that it has begun to refund investors of the token sale’s cancellation.



According to Seth Melamed, who serves as the Head of Business Development at Liquid he explained that they ensured that the funds have been refunded to all of their clients without charging any fee.



They said in a statement released that “The Gram Token Sale on Liquid has been canceled, and all funds previously held in escrow by Liquid have been returned to Liquid users who participated in the Gram Token Sale.”