US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the introduction of prohibitive measures against the unregistered placement of digital tokens associated with the Gram cryptocurrency built on the blockchain platform (Telegram Open Network). The project attracted more than $1.7 billion in investments and was supposed to start no later than October 31, after which the tokens associated with the cryptocurrency would go on free sale.
The ban is presented as an attempt to prevent the US market from flooding with digital tokens that the US Securities Commission believes were sold illegally. A feature of Gram is that all units of the Gram cryptocurrency are issued at once and distributed among investors and the stabilization fund, and are not formed during mining. The SEC contends that under such an arrangement, Gram is subject to existing securities laws. In particular, the issue of Gram required mandatory registration with the relevant regulatory authorities, but such registration was not made.
The Commission is said to have already warned that it is impossible to avoid federal securities laws by simply calling a product a cryptocurrency or digital token. In the case of Telegram, it seeks to benefit from a public offering without complying with long-established disclosure rules designed to protect investors. In particular, contrary to the requirements of securities legislation, investors did not provide information on business operations, financial condition, risk factors and management organization.
Currently, the US Securities Commission has already obtained a temporary injunction against the activities of two offshore companies (Telegram Group Inc. and a division of TON Issuer Inc.). A lawsuit has also been filed in Manhattan Federal District Court for violating the requirements of sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act, by which the Commission is seeking a permanent injunction, and collection of fines.
On the same day it became
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Mercado Pago and eBay exit (PayPal also left the project a week ago) from the main participants of the project , in which Facebook is trying to develop its own cryptocurrency. Representatives
Visa commented on the exit that the company has currently decided to refrain from participating in the Libra Association, but will continue to monitor the situation and the final decision will depend on various factors, including the ability of the Libra Association to achieve full compliance with regulatory requirements.
Source: opennet.ru