Kim Dotcom will not be able to issue his new cryptocurrency.
Dotcom Will Not Get His Upcoming ICO
The plan was that Dotcom would garner the funds he needs to launch the new currency through an initial coin offering (ICO) hosted by Bitfinex, a popular cryptocurrency exchange that is arguably surrounded by as much controversy as Dotcom himself.
As it turns out, Bitfinex is getting a little worried about all the regulatory uncertainty meandering through the crypto space as of late and doesn’t want any connection with Dotcom or the products he’s planning to offer.
Dotcom is a German-Finnish businessman who changed his name from Kim Schmitz and later relocated to New Zealand. Dotcom is currently under threat to be extradited back to America following the extinction of his previous website known as Megaupload.com, which is seen by regulators as the biggest example of copyright infringement in the history of the U.S.
ICOs have proven to be very controversial over the past year. While they originally started out as solid means of garnering funds for new businesses and startups, many companies hosting these ICOs proved fraudulent or phony, and it appears Bitfinex doesn’t want to take a chance that Dotcom will do the same.
Often, new companies would seek investments from those who were a little more “financially well off.” In exchange for funds, these investors would garner a new coin from the startup they were assisting which would inherently give them access to the company’s products and services.
Unfortunately, many of these companies either didn’t make it halfway through their operations (i.e. they didn’t raise enough money to stay in business) or had malintent from the beginning and ran off the minute they earned money. It was never their intention to start a company; just to steal funds.
On October 29, Kim Dotcom announced that approximately ten percent of the transaction fees taken in by his company K.im would go to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange’s case. Assange has been charged by the U.S. with obtaining national defense information, and the country is also looking to have him shipped back to America for questioning.
Bitfinex Has Its Own Problems
This apparently didn’t sit well with Bitfinex, who issued the following statement:
K.im will defer any decision on whether to create tokens on or undertake a token issue in relation to the K.im platform until it is fully functional. In the meantime, the K.im platform project itself will continue and it is likely that an equity-based offer will be made some time in the future to qualifying investors.
Bitfinex is currently facing its own demons through a new report issued by University of Texas finance professor John Griffin. The document alleges that a Bitfinex account holder was responsible for manipulating the bitcoin price back in 2017.
