Bitcoin.com came in for a storm of criticism yesterday when its exchange listed the controversial HEX token, which is has been outed as a probable scam by most of the community. Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust appeared to illustrate the lack of thinking behind the decision, stating on Telegram that it was listed “out of spite” after HEX founder Richard Heart was involved in a fractious interview with What Bitcoin Did podcast host Peter McCormack.
We are thrilled to announce that we have just listed #HEX by @RichardHeartWin on our exchange, giving anyone who wants to trade it a secure venue to do so. Check it out! https://t.co/BCOEVEyTGX pic.twitter.com/mdKezZo59t
— Bitcoin.com Exchange (@BitcoinComExch) December 15, 2019
Bitcoin.com Stirs the Hornets’ Nest
Bitcoin.com announced the listing of HEX late on Sunday, saying that they were “thrilled” to be doing so, although the community quickly let them know what they thought of it:
I think desperate is more appropriate word.
— Michal Pecek (@michal_pecek) December 16, 2019
Nice. Now people know where they shouldn‘t trade at all.
— I’m a believer. Ⓥ [Jan/3➞₿?∎] (@taurinoman) December 15, 2019
erosion of ethics.. 😐
— Andrew Njoo (@AndrewNjoo) December 16, 2019
Many questioned the reason why Bitcoin.com would list such a contentious token, but a potential reason soon emerged thanks to a screen capture of some Telegram posts by Rust:
The official HEX account celebrated the listing by reveling in the “66x wick up” that came off the back of the listing, completely negating the fact that the volume of the move was a paltry $4. Given that the entire basis of the coin is supposed to be around its value, it is no surprise that the project grabbed onto any scrap of positivity it could, but celebrating such a pathetic achievement should be very worrying indeed for those involved.
Trevon James Pushes Anti-HEX “Conspiracy”
HEX, which calls itself a Certificate of Deposit, has been grabbing the headlines recently due to its incredible similarity to a Ponzi scheme, and the hiring of former BitConnect shillers Craig Grant and Tervon James to sell the product to the masses. James in particular has been peppering Twitter with videos selling HEX and trying to debunk the “unreal” amount of FUD that has been rightly thrown at the project, which claims to be “designed to increase its price and adoption”, despite the token crashing over 90% on exchanges:
The Great Hex Conspiracy (The Truth) pic.twitter.com/fr9TmBtoDF
— Trevon James (@BitcoinTre) December 15, 2019
In his latest video, James claims that the huge amount of FUD aimed at HEX has in fact not come from non HEX-holders trying to raise the alarm over the ridiculous claims made by Heart, but is instead an inside job:
FUD from the beginning of HEX was…initiated by the HEX community because they don’t want people buying into it, cause they want to be the ones that put the ETH in it to get the biggest share of every day’s pool.
This astonishing attempt to deflect attention away from Heart’s tactics, which he himself has likened to those of typical Ponzi schemes, is lamentable in itself, but coming from someone who was still pushing BitConnect even after hit had been exposed as a scam takes the whole charade to another level.
If HEX looked bad before, it looks like positively toxic now.
A special word from Treyvon about $HEX. Filmed this morning. pic.twitter.com/g0lenEZOhH
— Pentoshi (@Pentoshiswallet) December 14, 2019
