Telegram Backer Sought Circle Listing Before SEC Halted Token Launch

A least one crypto exchange, Circle, was asked to list Telegram's tokens before the Securities and Exchange Commission halted the launch of the TON blockchain, court filings show.

In the form, Vasin said he was acting as the chief operating officer of Gram Vault, a crypto custodian that claimed to have brought a large part of investors into the 2018 Telegram token sale and was planning to hold the tokens on those investors' behalf.

In the subpoena to Telegram, the SEC requested information regarding the potential trading of grams on Coinbase, Poloniex, Bittrex, Huobi, Binance, Blackmoon Crypto, and Liquid.io - the last two had previously announced they would list grams.

The SEC sued Telegram on Oct. 11, demanding it halt the launch of the messaging app's blockchain project, Telegram Open Network, and issuing tokens to investors in the private token sale in February and March of last year.

The SEC cited Telegram's lack of collaboration with the regulator, pointing out that the company refused to comply with the SEC subpoena as an argument to the court for why it should halt the project.

The court filings show that Telegram had been in communication with the SEC over the summer and prior to the launch of the mainnet, which had been previously scheduled for the end of October.

In a document titled "Fourth Supplemental Memorandum to the Staff of The Securities and Exchange Commission" filed to the court by the company's lawyers and dated July 25, Telegram provided the details of the upcoming token distribution and several updates over the course of the year.

"During our meeting with the Staff on July 18, 2019, we offered to provide this document summarizing key aspects of the TON Blockchain," Telegram wrote, adding that the memorandum followed four others previously sent to the SEC. The dates of those letters were June 26, 2018, Nov. 20, 2018, Feb. 27, 2019 and March 18, 2019.

In an email to investors following the SEC lawsuit, Telegram said it had been interacting with the agency for more than a year, including the registration of the two offerings under Regulation D in February and March of last year.

The SEC wanted to know the complete list of investors, the current status and the details of the use of the funds Telegram raised in the token sale and how Telegram made sure the investors were planning to actively use grams, rather than hold them as securities.