Steven Segal made the news back in February when he endorsed the crypto project named ”Bitcoiin”, but now he is apparently giving up his role as brand ambassador.
No longer Brand Ambasador
90s film actor Steven Seagal is no longer Bitcoiin’s brand endorser. According to statement made on March 26th on the project’s website, both Seagal and the founders of the ICO have departed from their roles at Bitcoiin once the ICO was completed.
The post read: “As Bitcoiin goes through the conversion phase from token to mineable coin we wish to advise that Bitcoiin will join the likes of the original Bitcoin and become a truly open source. Therefore a big thank you to the Founders and to our Brand Ambassador whom we wish all the best in their future endeavors. However, from this point on Bitcoiin will function within its ecosystem and become a genuinely anonymous cryptocurrency with no individual or individuals having control over the entity!”
Apart from Seagal, it hasn’t been made very clear who were the rest of the people backing up the project. This exit comes days after Tennessee issues warnings regarding Bitcoiin investments, mirroring New Jersey’s actions.
Seagal made no public disclosures concerning his departure via Twitter, where he previously posted messages that promoted the Bitcoiin ICO.
Regulatory Issues
Seagal had only been declared as Brand Ambassador for Bitcoiin in late February, since then, many things have changed. Local financial regulators in several US states have issued warnings or cease and desist orders against the token sale.
For instance, the Bureau of Securities of the State of New Jersey issued a cease and desist order which warned that Bitcoiin was offering “investments to the general public, including the residents of New Jersey in its Bitcoiin ICO and ‘Bitcoiin Staking Program’” via a site that “projects that each B2G will be worth $388 by December 2018.” The order establish that Bitcoiin provided securities that contravened the law.
The team’s project has tried to blame it on the media for making it a bug misunderstanding, stating that: “To debunk the regurgitating media bitcoiin will not have a staking or referral program, this was always explained as part of the ICO period only and as a reward for clients introducing like-minded individual. However, the media which believe in sensationalism instead of reality and actually reading our whitepaper continues to regurgitate misinformation, therefore we are stating unequivocally for the last time before the blockchain goes live that neither STAKING nor REFERRALS will exist in the blockchain or the Bitcoiin ecosystem.”
It’s not exactly known how much money the ICO had raised, though the team claimed earlier this month that their „soft cap” of $75 million had been reached.
