- The price of Helium’s HNT token has continued to dive as the Binance delisting approaches
- The company has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme
- Binance is delisting the HNT token on Wednesday
Blockchain-based WiFi project Helium has seen its token price continue to fall away, dropping below $1.50 for the first time since January 2021, as the imminent Binance delisting nears. The delisting, taking place on Wednesday, is the latest in a series of blows for the company, with its already poor reputation now lying firmly in the gutter and holders facing a liquidity dearth.
Helium Has Failed to Live Up to the Hype
Helium has in many ways been a victim of its own hype. The project launched in 2019 amid excitement over its decentralized IoT approach, with big names such as Lime and Salesforce dipping their toes in for a trial to see what all the fuss was about. Naturally, Helium lauded these deals from the rooftops, but ironically this is where their troubles began – when the trials ended and the two companies said no thanks for any continued partnership, Helium kept Lime and Salesforce kept their names on their website as partners.
This was flagged by Mashable in August last year and Helium was ridiculed for an apparent attempt to mislead potential investors and HNT token buyers, which had only exacerbated claims that Helium’s tokenomics made it a Ponzi scheme. Helium’s CEO Amir Haleem called the accusations “frustrating and upsetting”, saying that trials come and go and that they “don’t always know when users stop using the network”, but the stain on the company’s reputation never really shifted.
Things got worse three months later when Bill Ackman, famous for a massive loss following a long-term failed short of Herbalife, was derided for putting out a 19-strong tweet in favor of Helium, which was followed by a cacophony of criticism for what everyone could see amounted to marketing.
HNT Price Dying
Helium’s case hasn’t been helped by the price action of its HNT token, which peaked in November 2021 and has been freefall ever since:
The HNT token is now in fact below its value during the recovery from the March 2020 crypto crash, and shows no sign of recovery. It has also experienced a 50% drop in less than a week due to the announcement from Binance that it is going to delist the HNT token on Wednesday, saying it had failed the exchange’s regular reviews. Helium called this “unfortunate”, but many in the space don’t agree, with everything from its mining practices to its marketing practices criticized:
Helium is so decentralised that one of my miners was put on the deny list for no reason. The other one was stopped by the manufacturer uploading other firmware to stop it working. Be very careful to invest in this…euh….what exactly is helium other then just another ponzi?
— TrickyRicky (@ispankhypocrisy) March 19, 2023
I was selling all the way,the ponzi netowrk of china was finished after the first halving and when they started the so called chip delayed production of their shtboxes from china
— Stefan (@Stefan47186160) March 17, 2023
It will take a minor miracle for Helium to recover from this, and it seems that its much vaunted ‘hotspot’ machines might soon become nothing more than an expensive doorstop or crypto collector’s item.
