Telegram says U.S. investors cannot continue with project and must accept refund

In a letter to investors, Telegram said U.S. investors must cut ties with the project and accept the 72% refund on their initial contributions. The decision comes less than a week after Telegram delayed the launch of its blockchain by another year in response to U.S. regulators blockading the distribution of GRAM tokens. The new stipulation will prevent U.S. backers from participating in the potentially more lucrative offer Telegram offered investors last week, where investors could earn 110% on initial contributions by converting their investments into loans.

Telegram also no longer plans to repay non-U.S. investors with GRAMs or any other cryptocurrency, according to a different letter obtained by CoinDesk. However, the loan offer described above is still available to these investors.

Why it matters:

• While forgoing what could be a significant chunk of change by cutting ties with U.S. investors, Telegram raised $1.7 billion through its token sales. Of this total, Telegram must offer investors a 72% refund based on their previous agreement, which equals about $1.22 billion. All this is to say Telegram has plenty of financial resources to fund development and future adoption even with U.S. investors out of the picture. But the current regulatory environment should prevent GRAMs from entering U.S. markets for the foreseeable future.
• CoinDesk previously reported that investors could eventually receive Telegram shares in exchange for their time and resources. Expanding on last week's finding, a Telegram spokesperson relayed that "investors in the TON project itself won't receive equity as repayment, but that the company might raise cash through equity sales." While the is no apparent consensus on Telegram's valuation, Russian news outlet The Bell estimates it might be in the range of $4-10 billion.