Highlights:

Telegram has notified investors that the TON blockchain project will be launched later than planned, pushing the deadline from Oct. 30 to April 30, 2020.

This is due to a recent compliant filed by the SEC claiming the the token issuance by Telegram is illegal

If nothing goes right, Telegram might have to return the funds back to the initial investors

During late 2018 and early 2019, cryptocurrency investors, both institutional and retail, helped Telegram to launch one of the most ambitious and strategic plan to launch a global cryptocurrency network. Together, Telegram managed to raise upwards of $1.7 billion through token issuance.

In return, the investors got rights to digital tokens called TON from Telegram. The final launch of the token and distribution was slated to launch by October 3, 2019.

But the SEC abruptly declared its $1.7 billion dollar token offering to be illegal. Telegram raised the massive sum for its new network by selling TON’s native Gram tokens to qualified investors in two separate rounds. As such, the commission’s full complaint alleges that Telegram and TON did not register their sale of GRM tokens, which the SEC considers securities.

“In the event that only one group approves the extension, then that group’s purchase agreements will remain in place while the other group of agreements will be terminated. In these circumstances, we propose to make certain limited amendments to the terms of the purchase agreements that remain in place to reflect the fact that fewer Grams will be issued and in circulation on the Network Launch Date.”

It is still unclear what the team behind Telegram’s ICO has planed, but the message sent by the SEC is quite clear. Any future token issuance schemes such as this will be heavily scrutinized and so, steps have to be taken carefully.