
“
Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram” - this is how
Pavel Durov began his message published in his telegram channel. The letter stated that the TON project was closed due to insurmountable obstacles created by US regulators.
As previously reported, Pavel Durov managed to raise more than
$1.7 billion during the ICO. Among investors are large companies and businessmen from the USA, Russia, Europe and Israel. In early May, the TON team sent them a proposal for the possible return of
72% of the invested funds, but the project had not yet been closed at that time, since the final decision of the American court to ban the issuing of
Gram tokens had not yet been rendered. Durov says it is paradoxical, since
US authorities have banned the distribution of the cryptocurrency not only in the country,
but throughout the world.It is also interesting how the creator of
TON will return the invested money. At the moment, it is known that a
group of businessmen, who invested in the project, are considering the option of concluding a
loan agreement with Telegram on a subsequent returning of funds.
Members of the another group are going to sue the Telegram creator, because according to the founder of Tokenbox Vladimir Smerkis, who also invested in TON, almost
$500 million was spent on the project, which is
28% of all funds raised during the ICO, and investors will not receive anything in return for the investment they did.
At the same time,
Pavel Durov notes in his letter that residents of any other countries depend on the United States in the area of finance and technology. “The US can use its control over the dollar and the global financial system to shut down any bank or bank account in the world. It can use its control over
Apple and
Google to remove apps from the
App Store and
Google Play. So yes, it is true that other countries do not have full sovereignty over what to allow on their territory. Unfortunately, we – the
96% of the world’s population living elsewhere – are dependent on decision makers elected by the
4% living in the US.” - he said.