Fired employee hits back at TenX CEO after Hosp exit: 'Personal jealousy'

The controversial departure of Julian Hosp as president of TenX earlier this year has left many investors with questions. Former Head of Communications and Community Management Patricia Zinnecker, who was fired as well next to Hosp and his wife Bettina, is giving more details about the sudden exit in an interview with German crypto outlet BTC-ECHO.

Hosp announced his departure from the TenX project in January in an emotional video, in which he didn't give any details on the reasons why. The TenX team didn't gave a clear explanation as well, but on Reddit rumors spread that Hosp dumped 2.2M PAY, the TenX token, on Bittrex just before his departure was announced, which lead to accusations of insider trading and 'selling at the top before the price would dump'.

Read more: Did Hosp sell 2.2M tokens before leaving TenX? TenX 'didn't receive notification'

Hosp responded to those claims stating that these 'accusations are crossing the line'. TenX came out with a statement that it had not received any notification from Hosp that he wanted to sell his holdings, something he has to do according to the trading policy.

'Slap in the face'
In the interview, Zinnecker describes the day she came into the office and got told by co-founder and CEO Toby Hoenisch that she, Hosp and his wife Bettina got fired. "Everyone wanted to know: why? The only thing Toby said was: You are fired. And you know why. But we didn't know. I wanted to know what I had done wrong. He looked at me and said: You always did an awesome job, you didn't do anything wrong. That was a slap in the face."

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Went for a little hike today. Look how wonderful Mother Nature is!! ☺️ . On the way, I had time to think of my biggest lessons so far. And definitely one of it is: If I joined a (crypto) startup again, I would try to also focus on finding out if the team leaders & members are there for the money or for the vision. My learning: Just because I am 100% dedicated, this does not have to be the case for others. I don’t know yet HOW to find this out asap as this is extremely tricky (and as ppl usually stick to the hand that feeds (pays) them). But I will keep you posted on my progress. 😉 . What was your biggest lesson so far? . #startup #startuplife #staypositive

Een bericht gedeeld door Patricia Zinnecker (@patriciazinnecker) op 20 Feb 2019 om 2:04 (PST)

Zinnecker describes that she later went back to Hoenisch asking for clarification. "Then they said: We actually terminated you by mistake, that was awkward. You were just in the room. We can forget that, if it's ok for you. They wanted me to stay."

'An ego thing'
Zinnecker says that 'in retrospect, it has become increasingly clear that Toby's personal jealousy on Julian plays an important role'. "For him, that's probably extremely difficult to deal with. The decision had nothing to do with business." According to Zinnecker, it was 'an ego thing'. "Toby always had his challenges."

The departure had nothing to do with Hosp selling his 2.2M $PAY tokens at the top, says the former TenX employee. "The termination has 100% nothing to do with token sales." Zinnecker says everyone at TenX sold tokens. "We've even received emails that said: hey guys, if you sell your tokens, remember you have to pay taxes. (...) Every year, many people sold their tokens and nobody was interested. It suddenly changed with Julian."

TenX is a company making cryptocurrency payment cards. Today, the project announced that users in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand now get their cards shipped to them.

TenX Cards are now shipping to users residing in Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Join the revolution, get your card now. pic.twitter.com/7iRPpGPwk5

— TenX (@tenxwallet) February 20, 2019