Value of Centra Collapses As Binance Delists It. The Centra cryptocurrency is no longer listed on the Binance exchange. The move comes amid ongoing struggles with the currency with the co-founders of the project having been arrested for fraud. The currency has been in the news in the past for its involvement with celebrities and for its audacious plans for linking to a debit card system that many larger card companies use.
Centra had a value of over $4 earlier this year and a market cap of around $300 million. The currency’s value has struggled to go anywhere and has consistently gone down in value over the past few months. The currency was at 30 cents earlier this week but has fallen to as low as 5 cents. The currency is trading it around 10 cents as of the middle of Thursday. The market cap is also around $7 million.
Two people responsible for the formation of Centra were arrested on charges of fraud. Sam Sharma and Robert Farkas stated that the Centra project was to be halted as that had been an SEC complaint filed against them.
The elimination of Centra from Binance reduces the currency’s reach to the public.
The central point is that Sharma and Farkas ran a $32 million coin sale to get the Centra currency to move forward. The goal of Centra was to provide people with access to a currency exchange and debit card system that could work on the same networks that Visa and MasterCard already work on.
Although the system would have made it easier for people to use cryptocurrencies with a debit card, the SEC said that neither MasterCard nor Visa had given the people behind Centra approval for the project.
Also, the SEC found that Sharma and Farkas had fabricated some of the details on their site. This included the use of fake CEO names on the Centra page.
The charges being levied on the two include securities and wire fraud plus a conspiracy to commit both of those illegal actions.
Farkas also had a flight reservation to get on a plane to leave the United States, but he was arrested before getting there.
The development came as the ICO field has been struggling with significant problems surrounding security. There have been many issues over time where ICOs being offered are being found to be illegal as these often operate without many legal standards or rules involved in how they may work.
Centra made news earlier for how it was being promoted by a few popular celebrities including boxing star Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather had stated on social media that he had been investing in Centra and was encouraging people to join its ICO, but it is unclear as to how much of a position he had in the currency.
The SEC has stated that any financial service providers that work with celebrity endorsements must be up front over whether those celebrities were given compensation and if they received funds. The SEC has also warned the public about the risks associated with investing in currencies or other items endorsed by celebrities.
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