OREANDA-NEWS. The New York Southern District Court upheld a petition from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ban the transfer of digital Gram tokens to Telegram Group Inc.

“The court considers that the SEC has made significant progress in proving that Telegram transferred the Gram to customers so that these tokens can then be distributed by them in the secondary market”, the decision said.

The court explained that the transfer of Telegram tokens to buyers will result in a public offering of Gram, which the SEC considers to be securities, without registration necessary for this. “The court order prohibiting the transfer of Gram to customers and thereby preventing this violation will be satisfied”, the court decision said.

At the beginning of 2018, Telegram through the structures of Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. raised $ 1.7 billion from unnamed investors to launch its TON blockchain platform and its own Gram cryptocurrency.