Iran moves to criminalize using Telegram’s cryptocurrency ‘Gram’

The government of Iran has moved to criminalize the use of Gram, the representative cryptocurrency of the TON Blockchain being developed by instant messaging service Telegram, Tehran Times reported.

Secretary of Criminal Content Definition Task Force Javad Javidnia has recently announced that any cooperation with Telegram to launch Gram will constitute an action against national security and will be dealt with as a disruption to the national economy.

“One of the most important factors in banning Telegram was a sense of serious economic threat from its activities, which was unfortunately marginalized and neglected due to the fuss in the political atmosphere of the country,” Javidnia said.

The move comes after Iran’s judiciary banned the Telegram app in April 2018 to protect national security.

The app has been under fire in Iran with officials saying that Telegram’s ICO was potentially “undermin[ing] the national currency of Iran,” Cointelegraph reported. Russia had also banned the app due to concerns over its ICO.

Launched in 2013, Telegram is an encrypted, cloud-based instant messaging service with over 200 million active users. After raising a whopping $1.7 billion in a private sale, it ditched its initial coin offering (ICO) plans last year.