{"id":9005,"date":"2020-06-11T03:37:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T00:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.media\/?p=9005"},"modified":"2020-06-11T21:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T18:41:04","slug":"over-a-gram-of-trouble-what-happened-to-people-who-bought-gram-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/over-a-gram-of-trouble-what-happened-to-people-who-bought-gram-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"Over a Gram of Trouble: What Happened to People Who Bought Gram Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it lasted<\/a>, Telegram\u2019s TON project has been a tempting target for investors. A few managed to get into TON\u2019s private token sale while the rest had to wait till launch or look for futures contracts for Gram tokens, which were offered by several trading platforms.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When, following prolonged litigation with the SEC, the original developers terminated the TON project, the money invested in Gram futures ended up in limbo. Some investors got their money back, others not so much. ForkLog turned to real cases to figure out what happened.<\/p>\n

BitForex Going with Modest Refunds<\/h2>\n

A cryptocurrency trading platform BitForex started offering<\/a> Gram futures back in July 2019. The holders of the futures would have been able to buy out the tokens at 1:1 price after TON is launched, which was expected to happen on October 31st, 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Description<\/a><\/p>\n

Description and terms of Gram Futures sale. Source: <\/i>BitForex website<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

A BitForex user Oazisdemyanovi told ForkLog that the exchange sold off all of its $500,000 worth of futures, $0,5 each, by October 2019.<\/p>\n

On May 12th, 2020, Pavel Durov announced<\/a> that the original team will cease working on the project. Unable to fulfill the contracts, BitForex had to close the trading pair and cancel all the Gram futures deals. The decision came through on May 16th. Much to users\u2019 surprise, the reimbursements for those deals amounted to about 2% of the initial investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of the actual $0.5 per futures, they repaid only $0.01. Out of all the money they got they\u2019ve only returned 2% for some unexplained reasons. I had 8094 Gram futures. The platform locked them and paid me only $101,\u201d<\/i><\/b> Oazisdemyanovi said.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The user explained that for 8 months since October 2019, Gram futures were sold for $2 on average.<\/p>\n

\"Gram\/USDT<\/p>\n

Gram\/USDT Chart. Source: Bitforex<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were buying and selling for $2. Five hours before the pair has been closed, BitForex artificially dumped the price to the minimum, filled the order book with hundreds of thousands of cheap futures that came out of nowhere, and closed trading. They paid Gram futures holders $0.01 per contract,\u201d <\/i><\/b>BitForex user explained.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the incident, Oazisdemyanovi asked for help in the BitForex Russian chat in Telegram. The user said that the chat administrator immediately deleted his post and blocked him.<\/p>\n

\"Telegram<\/p>\n

Telegram screenshot, the message reads \u201cUnfortunately, the chat is not available.\u201d Source: captured by Oazisdemyanovi<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also contacted BitForex support. They sent me a standard response and didn\u2019t react to the next three messages,\u201d <\/i><\/b>he added.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Screenshot of the conversation with BitForex support. The user asked why the platform returned only 2% of the money, the support explained that token prices depend on the market. Source:<\/i> captured by Oazisdemyanovi<\/i><\/p>\n

Several other users reported similar cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve invested about $35 thousand and they returned $27. There are messages from the platform\u2019s support but no good news,\u201d <\/i><\/b>one of the users said.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another user purchased 200 Gram tokens for $2 each, but the exchange reportedly repaid them only $0.0125 per token.<\/p>\n

Similarly, a user Andry M didn\u2019t get to profit from Gram futures:<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I was buying about 30 Gram for $2 each. In the last days, hoping that the platform will pay for the tokens at the market price I\u2019ve bought 250 more. The return price was $0.01.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of the clients reporting said there were no additional payouts or benefits offered by the platform.<\/p>\n

When contacted by ForkLog, BitForex representatives first said that the end of Gram development is unfortunate:<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, we and other early Gram investors had high hopes for the future of the token. At the same time, the institutions we\u2019ve worked with and the early Gram investors like us and the users faced losses on different scales.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to BitForex, the idea behind the futures was \u201cto reflect the value of Gram in the market and allow all users who can\u2019t access initial investments in Gram to take part in this historic moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team said that to provide liquidity and parties to the deals they offered users collateralized loans for Gram tokens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price drop is the result of the users\u2019 trading and profit strategy. Since caring about users is our primary value, we will offer compensations to different categories of users who took part,\u201d<\/i><\/b> they added.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the trading was closed, Gram holders received a $10 bonus applicable to new perpetual contract positions.<\/p>\n

ForkLog also asked about the \u201chundreds of thousands of futures\u201d placed on sale and the \u201cartificial price dump\u201d mentioned by Oazisdemyanovi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe order book for Gram sales consisted of purchased and collateral tokens. The crypto-market tends to follow trading trends, especially when there is terrible news. This is the force of the market and the pressure from traders combined,\u201d <\/i><\/b>BitForex answered.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other Platforms Selling Gram Before It Was a Thing<\/h2>\n

BitForex wasn\u2019t the only platform offering users to profit on Pavel Durov\u2019s unborn cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

In June 2019, a Japanese crypto-exchange Liquid announced<\/a> that it is preparing to sell Gram tokens obtained from a relatively obscure South Korean company Gram Asia that allegedly served as an incubator for TON.<\/p>\n

\n

The Gram Token Sale is coming to Liquid. <\/p>\n

For the first time, members of the public will be able to buy Telegram's sought-after $Gram<\/a> tokens. $QASH<\/a> holder benefits included. <\/p>\n

Get the inside scoop.https:\/\/t.co\/atHGHUP32v<\/a><\/p>\n

— Liquid Global Official (@Liquid_Global) June 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n