“Creating tomorrow’s economy for the planet and its people”: At the end of 2021, when the French start-up Cardashift was born, its website announced grand ambitions. The company planned to “debug the world with blockchain” and defined itself as a “launchpad [funding platform] to foster sustainable development.”
It positioned itself as one of a few thousand innovative companies in France known as “impact” projects, meaning they have an objective that is not only economic but also societal or environmental.
But “impact” and cryptoactives don’t always mix. The findings of Le Monde‘s investigation suggest that, despite its virtuous mission, the company has clearly not escaped some of the most dubious practices in the world of Web3: Suspected price manipulation, unfair trading practices, and transparency problems top the list.
The company assured Le Monde that it has done nothing illegal and claims to be the victim of a smear campaign by a disgruntled former partner.
An unclear funding campaign
However, the young start-up had achieved one success after another from the outset. Three months after its creation, it launched an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a crypto asset-based operation to raise funds, enabling interested investors to purchase $Clap tokens. Issued by Cardashift, these give them voting rights to choose which projects the company will support.
Cardashift announced that it had raised $10 million (around €9.2 million) in just a few days from private investors as well as a major US investment fund, placing it among the largest ICOs carried out in France in recent years. Concurrently, the company was recruiting prestigious ambassadors and advisers, including former executives from UNICEF and Apple.
But this successful funding drive also raised questions. Firstly, concerning the advertising around the project: Cardashift invested in a major campaign (for over €160,000), notably through influencers on TikTok. Le Monde found that these videos, published at the beginning of 2022, did not disclose their advertising nature, as required by law.
The amount raised is particularly questionable. On the day of the public sale, the company asserted that it had exceeded its sales ceiling, the operation having been oversubscribed by 108%. But the details are confusing: The official press release had a headline of $10 million, but the total figures contained in the text ended up at just $7.5 million. The company’s financial statement, meanwhile, says that €5 million was raised. Finally, an examination of the transactions in the project’s blockchain shows that 20 million $Clap tokens – out of a total of 1 billion – were not distributed, suggesting that the sale was, in fact, not complete.
You have 75% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
Credit: Source link