Kim Dotcom’s Cryptocurrency Sale Canceled by Exchange

Olga Kharif, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- It doesn’t look like the controversial internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom will be issuing his eponymous cryptocurrency anytime soon.

The digital-asset exchange Bitfinex said it no longer plans to offer the Kimcoin token on its platform because of rapidly evolving regulatory uncertainty and risks associated from raising funds for him through a so-called initial exchange offering.

Dotcom, a German-Finnish businessman who changed his name from Kim Schmitz, now resides in New Zealand. The U.S. is seeking Dotcom’s extradition over his now defunct file-sharing website Megaupload.com, which is alleged to have been the vehicle for the biggest copyright infringement in U.S. history.

The controversy surrounding Dotcom, 45, has increased since the inaugural IEO for the exchange was announced. In an Oct. 29 tweet, Dotcom said his company K.im was committing 10% of its transaction fee income to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange’s legal team. The U.S. government has charged Assange with conspiracy to obtain classified national defense information and is also seeking his extradition.

Dotcom planned for the token to be used in online content. The platform and related coins are supposed to launch in the third quarter of 2020, according to the roadmap published on his site.

“K.im will defer any decision on whether to create tokens on, or undertake a token issue in relation to the K.im platform until it is fully functional,” Bitfinex’s statement said. “In the meantime, the K.im platform project itself will continue and it is likely that an equity-based offer will be made some time in the near future to qualifying investors.” K.im’s investors include BnkToTheFuture Capital and Bitcoin Capital, according to the company’s website.

Dotcom’s representative didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka, Rita Nazareth