UPDATE: At the beginning of this year, PressCoin, the self-styled “crypto-economy for the Indian press” had grand plans of raising $100 million through a freshly minted crypto token aptly called NEWS. Except, today, NEWS is nowhere to be found on crypto listings. How did this happen?
PressCoin raised about $25 million through the ICO of its token NEWS. Six months in, a lot has changed.
For starters, the old guard is gone. During the ICO, PressCoin had 17 members working with it. Seven members in its leadership team. Three world-renowned journalists on the advisory board. And seven other equally-renowned journalists on the participation board.
Today, that number is down to three. Even Nafeez Ahmed, who was tasked with the role of Chief Journalist across PressCoin, is no longer on the “team” page of its website. The present team consists of Amit Rathore as head of product, Abhishek Sharma (a new addition) as the CTO, and Amit Bansal, who is in-charge of partnerships.
@realPressCoin has @NafeezAhmed left presscoin as well?
— Neo The Seventh (@neo_seventh) June 15, 2018
A mass overhaul like this doesn’t happen overnight. The NEWS token, Presscoin’s golden goose, could use some MISSING posters. The token, which was supposed to “be listed on all major exchanges in addition to the CointypeX exchange” as per the white paper, is notably unlisted. For starters, it isn’t on CoinMarketCap, a website which tracks the price movement of digital currencies, after six months of being launched. So, those who did purchase the token don’t have any place to trade or sell it.
Between disappearing board members and missing tokens, much has happened at PressCoin.
1. Institutional investors exit. In a blog post, PressCoin said that it has cancelled its purchase agreement with institutional token purchasers as they were “incompatible” with the group’s “strategy and philosophy”.
2. Product launches. PressCoin has reportedly launched a new platform called NextElection. Currently, in its beta stage, it appears to be a news aggregator platform devoid of original stories.
3. Investor panic. A move to apparently bring about transparency has become more opaque over time.
Why has the list of board members & advisors been removed from the #Presscoin website? Why are emails, tweets not being answered? Why is the Slack not accessible? @realPressCoin @AbbyMartin @johnpilger
— ⚡Crypto_Krill⚡ (@Crypto_Krill) February 12, 2018
Presscoin is imploding. Institutional Investors are withdrawing their money. Retail users will be left hodling their useless coins because presscoin is still not listed on any other exchange.
— Neo The Seventh (@neo_seventh) March 30, 2018
Six months could’ve helped PressCoin establish its use of blockchain and the NEWS token.
