Telegram will ask the court rule against classifying their Gram tokens as securities during the upcoming February hearing, according to a letter to TON investors that was obtained by U.Today.
As reported by U.Today, Telegram was slated to voice its arguments against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 24. However, a new court filing shows that the hearing has been postponed to Feb. 18-19, 2020.
IT IS ORDERED that Defendants shall not offer, sell, deliver, or distribute “Grams” toany person or entity, until the conclusion of the hearing scheduled by the Court for February 18and 19, 2020 (“Hearing”), except upon further order of the Court or agreement of the parties.
The Telegram team states that the hearing that is scheduled to take place in February is fundamentally different from the one that was supposed to happen in October. Telegram expected the court to put an end to the ongoing dispute by ruling on the "core arguments" that their Gram token is not a security.
The October 24 hearing, in contrast, was only to consider whether a delay should have been mandated, without conclusively resolving the core argument.
Advertisement
card
On Oct. 17, Telegram filed a response to the SEC where it states that its native token "will merely be a currency or a commodity." One day later, the regulatory watchdog asked the court not to reject its request for a preliminary injunction against the Pavel Durov-helmed company, adding that its argument about Grams not being securities wasn't convincing.
Telegram will make sure that its position is presented "as strongly as possible" during the forthcoming hearing.
The Telegram Open Network (TON) was scheduled to go live by Oct. 31 (otherwise, Telegram would have to return money to its investors). However, the SEC sued the messaging giant for allegedly running an unregistered ICO, which forced the company to delay the launch of its network to Apr. 30, 2020 while trying to cut a deal with its investors.
Gamza Khanzadaev
Godfrey Benjamin
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin