SEC halts Telegram’s $1.7 billion ‘unlawful’ token issuance

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has used an emergency restraining order in an attempt to prevent Telegram Group from distributing $GRAM tokens within the U.S. The Telegram Open Network (TON) was scheduled to go live by Oct. 31. SEC Division of Enforcement co-director Stephanie Avakian said in a statement that the emergency action is “intended to prevent Telegram from flooding the U.S. markets with digital tokens that we allege were unlawfully sold.”