Article By Jeremy Wall
The crypto bear market has not been easy on crypto investors, established cryptocurrency projects, and especially initial coin offerings (ICOs). The demand for crypto tokens created by relatively unknown startups has completely diminished, leaving many crypto projects and ICOs dead or inactive.
While all hope may be lost for some crypto entrepreneurs who jumped on the ICO bandwagon a bit too late in 2018, one individual by the name of Ivan Komar may have found a way out.
Komar, the 21-year-old owner of the crypto startup “Sponsy” is attempting to sell his failed ICO project on eBay for $60,000.
Was “Sponsy” a Ponzi?
The failed ICO project called Sponsy is described as a blockchain project for the launching of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Security Token Offerings (STOs). It was purportedly audited by an investment firm, approved by investment bankers, and regulatory compliant with both the European Union and the United States regulations.
In addition to these promising attributes, Sponsy also had a solid social presence, with over 10,000 likes on Facebook and 8,000 subscribers on Twitter. However, Komar noted in an interview with Cointelegraph that all of these followers came from bounty programs.
“They come from a program called ‘bounty program.’ It’s very common among crypto startups. They are designed to spread the word about the project through those people who are commenting, liking, tweeting and stuff.”
Moreover, Komar had a reputable lawyer advising him on the project to ensure he was conducting his ICO legally. As reported by the Financial Times, his lawyer recommended he invest his own money and develop a product first, before conducting his ICO — a decision Komar now regrets.
“We would not have tried to build a product first, we would have tried to run a token sale as soon as possible, to jump into this crypto craze bandwagon, and raise as much money as possible before building any product. And that’s exactly what others were doing.”
It appears that Sponsy was not a Ponzi and in fact a reputable ICO. Ironically, it was conducting things in the proper order – working product first and then fundraising – that brought Komar and Sponsy too late to the game to compete with less diligent projects.
The Failed Sponsy ICO
Komar held his ICO at the start of 2018, where he attempted to sell SPONS tokens (an ERC-20 token) for $0.085 each in the presale that started on January 28 and ended on April 7. Since then, he’s then been trying to sell the tokens for $0.10 a piece in a sale that’s set to expire on May 1, 2019.
According to Cointelegraph, who spoke with Komar on his endeavor, the ICO project failed to take off mostly due to advertising difficulties.
Komar said:
“We tried contacting a couple of media outlets to spread the word about our project, but nobody was interested to write about yet another ICO, because so many ICOs were failing. Those who agreed offered an insanely high price for press coverage.”
Will Komar Be Able To Sell His Failed ICO on eBay?
Regarding Komar’s plans to create a viable ICO/STO launching platform, he has decided to abandon all plans due to funding but believes the project could still be a success if run by someone with funding and the drive.
“We decided to abandon those plans. But we believe that some person out there might be interested in this. That’s why we wrote about the fact that the buyer could run an ICO or STO with our project.”
Since the Financial Times covered Komar’s story, he has generated a following of 47 people on his eBay listing and has been approached by 7 people who are willing to pay as much as $50,000 for the startup. To this price offer, Komar said:
“I still expect that we will be able to negotiate the price to get it as close to $60,000 as possible.”
With the crypto markets starting to show an exuberance of life once again – and with the publicity sparked by such an unorthodox approach to token sales – perhaps Komar will reach his target of $60,000 for his failed ICO project.
