The specific rule means that although the parties have filed an agreement for dismissal of the case without prejudice, it doesn’t prevent Telegram deciding to appeal again in the future.

Telegram’s decision to abandon its TON network and Gram cryptocurrency is possibly one of if not the largest backdowns in cryptocurrency and initial coin offering history, though the ICO never happened.

The company raised $1.7 billion in presales from some 200 private investors and canceled plans for an initial coin offering. Investors included Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, Sergei Solonin, founder of payment service provider Qiwi, and David Yakobashvili, founder of Wimm-Bill-Dann foods. Other investors included blue-chip Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Benchmark Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The SEC subsequently claimed that the offering was an unregistered security and obtained a temporary restraining order against the TON blockchain sale in October 2019. Telegram appealed the decision but lost its first appeal in March, with a U.S. District Court judge ruling that the Gram sale was in breach of the Securities Act.

Telegram’s now withdrawn U.S. Court of Appeals filing was the second stage in its attempts to overturn the SEC decision.

Where things become somewhat messy is with Telegram’s refund process now that the project has been abandoned. Telegram is offering U.S. investors two options to have their funds returned: Take 72% of their original investment immediately or loan the money back to Telegram with a guarantee of getting back 110% of the total invested funds in April 2021.

Exactly what Telegram is doing with the funds it raised is not clear, but as Bitcoin Exchange Guide noted, the company faces possible lawsuits following the nondistribution of the tokens as well as from those claiming that the refund terms are not fair.

Image: Telegram