Infighting at Tezos has led to futures of its $232 mln token dropping 75 percent in hours, before it has even officially launched.
As Reuters reports Thursday, a squabble between Tezos’ twin founders and head of the custodial Tezos Foundation, Johann Gevers, has put the cat among the pigeons.
Now, investors, who have been waiting several months to trade their Tezzies tokens, are no closer to having their faith in the project restored.
Arthur and Kathleen Breitman are currently seeking to have Gevers removed from the Tezos Foundation, which looks after ICO proceeds in Bitcoin and Ethereum now worth over $400 mln.
A petition letter describes him as “self-dealing, self-promotion and conflicts of interest,” while Gevers confirmed to Reuters he had no intention of leaving.
“As Arthur has done to others before me, this is attempted character assassination. It’s a long laundry list of misleading statements and outright lies,” he retaliated.
“They’re unnecessarily putting the project at risk.”
Tezos’ ICO netted one of the largest amounts ever for the ballooning sector, with major backer Tim Draper yet to comment on progress or the current teething problems.
Asked how much he was invested in Tezos, Draper merely confirmed he had invested “a lot.”
Gevers, meanwhile, maintained politics would not affect the integrity of the project’s funds, which were stored in a secret location without direct access by any one party.
“These (Bitcoin and Ether) are not held in any one place,” he said, “but secured through high-security” digital wallets “that no single party has control over.”