Telegram has issued an open letter to investors following the New York District Court's grant of a preliminary injunction preventing Telegram from issuing its GRAM tokens.
In the letter, Telegram gives its ICO investors an option, either take the refund at 72 cents in the dollar, or to hold out, “loan'' their stake to Telegram for 12 months in exchange for repayment at 110 cents on the dollar on 30 April 2021.
The original refund obligation arose when Telegram missed its deadline to launch the Telegram Open Network (TON) on 30 April 2020, which activates a refund clause in Telegram's GRAM token purchase agreements. The secondary loan option has not previously been flagged, and according to the letter, is being offered as "a token of gratitude for [investors] trust in TON".
There are currently no further details on how precisely the secondary loan option will work, other than the letter claiming that:
Detailed documents describing this option, including a loan agreement, will be provided shortly to those who express interest.
Of course, the letter provides that Telegram is continuing to engage with the relevant government authorities regarding the issue of Gram tokens. Interestingly though, it goes on to provide that:
If we obtain the relevant permissions prior to April 30, 2021, purchasers who opted for the loan will have the further option to receive Grams or potentially another cryptocurrency on the same terms as those in their original Purchase Agreements (to the extent allowed by applicable regulatory restrictions).
In the event that Telegram cannot obtain permission to issue its Gram (or other) tokens before 30 April 2021, the letter provides that the debt will be met from proceeds from the sale of equity in Telegram.
The letter provides that investors have until the end of the week to elect to proceed with the repayment of the Termination Amount, or to express interest in reviewing the loan option.
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