Cryptocurrency companies Micasa WW Ltd and Remultex Ltd have been wound up by the High Court in the public interest.
The Official Receiver has been appointed liquidator of the Birmingham companies.
An Insolvency Service investigation found that Micasa had seen around £1.3 million pass through its accounts from February 2019, when it started operating, until December 2020.
The company had been identified as potentially involved in a cryptocurrency scam, although the lack of accounting records meant it was not possible to verify whether its business was legitimate trading activity.
Investigators did identify that it had secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan, although there was also no evidence that the company was eligible under the scheme rules.
Nearly all the BBL was transferred to Remultex Ltd, which appears to have started operating in December 2019. Remultex also received its own BBL of £30,000, although it was similarly not possible for investigators to confirm that the company was entitled to the BBL.
In addition to the Bounce Back Loan funds received from Micasa, Remultex received payments from three other companies, totalling nearly £250,000 by December 2020. Almost all of this was withdrawn from the business in cash.
As with Micasa, there were no accounting records to explain Remultex’s transactions.
Given that both companies traded with a lack of commercial probity and had taken public money to which they may not have been entitled, Judge Woodward sitting in the High Court in Manchester agreed that closing down the companies was in the public interest.
As part of their duties, the Official Receiver as Liquidator will seek to recover and realise the assets of the company to make returns to creditors.
“These companies failed to operate in a transparent fashion and failed to maintain proper accounting records,” David Hope, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said.
“There is no evidence they were entitled to taxpayers’ money through the Bounce Back Loan scheme, and it is probable that Micasa was funnelling funds as part of a cryptocurrency scam.”
Cryptocurrency shorts
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A report from anti-bot protection software firm Jigger claims that 40% of the player base of Web3 games are bots – 20,000 across 60 games – as companies seek to boost their valuations.
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Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the 20,800 coins is at $995 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 0.2% increase in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – is down slightly to stand around $20,350. BTC is 5% down on a week ago.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – gained 1% to $1,600. ETH is 2% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token remained at $289, leaving it 3% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP gained slightly to 33.3c, with its price 3% down on seven days ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, climbed 2% to 46c and is 1% up in a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token grew slightly to $32.58 and is 7% lower than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE fell 1% to 6.3c and is 7% down over seven days.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, fell 1% to $7.25 and is 4% down on its price a week ago.
Polygon aims to securely connect blockchains as a sort of decentralised internet. Its MATIC token gained 1% to close on 84c, while it is 3% up in a week.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token dropped 2% to $19.76 and is 15% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.