Unconfirmed: Telegram TON Network to Launch by October 2019 or Token Contracts Are Void

Purchase agreements for messenger service Telegram’s Gram tokens will be terminated if the Telegram Open Network (TON) does not launch by October 31, 2019. An apparent purchase agreement with the said terms was obtained by Cointelegraph on Feb. 21 though the Telegram channel Tgram, devoted to news about the TON network.

The agreement details the legal niceties of Gram token purchases, outlining regulations for different jurisdictions in regard to the distribution of the tokens. Notably, it states that, should network not be released by October 31, 2019, the contract will be considered null and void.

While the document provides the name of the founder of the encrypted messenger Telegram, Pavel Durov, it is not yet been signed or dated. The document also lists the address for Harneys, a lawyer's office in the British Virgin Islands, where Telegram is also registered.

According to the document, the company intends to create and release a new digital currency called “Grams” following the development and launch of a new blockchain platform, the TON Network.

Sources familiar with the matter recently told Cointelegraph that TON could launch as early as March 2019. Cointelegraph’s source emphasized that Durov was reluctant to confirm a specific date for TON's release and that the March estimate remains subject to change.

According Russian media outlet The Bell, investors have been told that TON is 90 percent ready, but that delays are possible because of the “innovative nature of the development.”

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Pavel and Nikolai Durov filed a “Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Feb. 13, 2018, reporting $850 million raised from 81 investors in the first round of their initial coin offering (ICO) for “the development of the TON Blockchain, the development and maintenance of Telegram Messenger.”

Later in March 2018, the Durov brothers revealed that they raised $850 million in the second round of their ICO from 94 investors. In October 2018, it was reported that Telegram would release a test version of theTON platform “this autumn.”