en
Back to the list

According to research, the largest crypto coin sale was fueled by a pump scheme

source-logo  thecoinrepublic.com 03 September 2021 13:19, UTC
  • It would be the world’s largest digital token sale ever. Block.one, a little-known software company, raised more than $4 billion in an initial coin offering for a new cryptocurrency over the course of 11 months in 2017 and 2018
  • Block.one was fined $24 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2019 for failing to register the ICO, and token holders sued Block.one last year
  • Integra FEC, a forensic financial analysis firm led by the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business finance professor John Griffin, has published new research that raises new issues regarding the EOS initial coin offering

It would be the world’s largest digital token sale ever. Block.one, a little-known software company, raised more than $4 billion in an initial coin offering for a new cryptocurrency over the course of 11 months in 2017 and 2018. Block.one, backed by billionaires such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, hedge fund tycoons Alan Howard and Louis Bacon, and German entrepreneur Christian Angermayer, said it will use the funds to develop tools to accelerate blockchain adoption. EOS, the newly issued cryptocurrency, was quickly involved in controversy.

Block.one was fined $24 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2019 for failing to register the ICO, and token holders sued Block.one last year, calling the sale a fraudulent scheme and alleging that the company broke securities laws by making false and misleading statements about EOS, which artificially inflated the prices for EOS securities and damaged unsuspecting investors. Some programmers and digital asset managers have claimed that the organization has made little progress toward its mission over the years. 

Integra FEC, a forensic financial analysis firm led by the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business finance professor John Griffin, has published new research that raises new issues regarding the EOS initial coin offering. Griffin has highlighted a pattern of questionable trades during the ICO in interviews and a 14-page report published on the Integra website on Tuesday. According to the study, the transactions between potentially related associates pumped up the price of EOS and enticed unwary investors to buy the currency. Griffin noted, the obviously artificial demand from the suspect accounts had two effects. It deliberately pushed EOS’s offering price upward through further purchases, inflating the token’s market value. Second, it gave the misleading appearance that the token was valuable, which tempted others to buy the ICO token.

thecoinrepublic.com