The world’s top social messaging app, Telegram has agreed to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amounting to $18.5 million over its $1.7 billion “unlawful” token sale.
As part of the agreement, Telegram must also inform the SEC should it choose to issue another digital coin within the next three years.
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The settlement between Telegram and the U.S. SEC effectively ends the months-long legal battle between the two parties, which began when the SEC sued Telegram back in Oct. 2019
Telegram now has “30 days to pay SEC’s penalty and up to four years to pay back investors.”
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Why it matters: Telegram has already stopped the TON project. Therefore, the settlement will not have an immediate effect on Telegram’s futuristic projects. While the official TON chain is inactive, community developers and validators launched a fork of TON (called Free TON) last month.
As we’ve previously covered, this case and settlement could have more significant implications for other SAFT raises, especially for those projects that have yet to launch.
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