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Animoca Brands Co-Founder Defends Token Launch Ahead of Potential IPO – DL News
- Web3 conglomerate launched MOCA Coin on Thursday.
- Animoca is also evaluating the possibility of going public in late 2025 or early 2026.
- Some regulators argue that tokens are generally similar to stocks.
It is rare for a publicly traded company in the cryptocurrency industry to launch a token.
Coinbase, Marathon Digital, Galaxy Digital, and others have all avoided making this decision.
But Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, is quick to defend the company’s launch of the MOCA coin on Thursday, while simultaneously explore an IPO.
“There is no profit sharing and there is no expectation of profit,” he said. DL News of the new Animoca token.
“I threw away the book”
In the past, Animoca token launches have gotten investor and gaming company Web3, one of the most prolific investors in the cryptocurrency space, into trouble.
In 2020, the Australian Securities Exchange deleted the crypto conglomerate, which owns a number of token-issuing entities, including the Metaverse platform The sandbox.
The Australian Stock Exchange has “thrown the book” on Animoca and provided a series of justifications for delisting the company, Siu said.
Among them were concerns that issuing tokens as a publicly traded company could represent a form of “double earning,” or profiting through two separate equity offering channels, he added.
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For some regulators, including Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, most cryptocurrencies They are unregistered titles.
In other words, they are back doors to collect money from lay investors without having to provide the necessary financial information required by law.
MOCA Coin’s market cap has been steadily increasing since its launch on Thursday. Source: CoinGecko.
Utility tokens
Siu didn’t agree with the “double earning” charge then, and he doesn’t agree now.
His company is evaluating a potential initial public offering in Hong Kong, Dubai or both, in late 2025 or early 2026, he said. DL News.
However, MOCA Coin, which has a total value of around $140 million, according to CoinGeckodoes not equate to fairness, Siu said.
It does not provide holders with anything resembling earnings per share.
Rather, it is a utility token, he said in a Medium Post.
Users of Animoca’s ecosystem of web3 games and applications, which includes the metaverse blockbuster The Sandbox, can use it as a means of payment.
They can also use MOCA Coin to vote in a decentralized autonomous organization, among other use cases, according to the token website.
Siu, whose company does not operate in the United States, says he understands the point that regulators like Gensler have repeatedly made.
But ultimately, when it comes to MOCA Coin and most of the cryptocurrencies Animoca holds on its balance sheet, he disagrees.
“We think it’s different,” he said.
The drivers of the cryptocurrency market
Bitcoin has dropped 2.6% in the last 24 hours, settling at $57,224.
Over the same period, Ethereum dropped by 2.5% to around $3,070.
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Ben Weiss is a Dubai-based correspondent at DL NewsHave a suggestion? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.