Omnitude, a blockchain project that aimed to integrate blockchain technology into organizations’ “commercial fabric”, has stated that it has run out of cash and has had to cease operations. The news resulted in a 80% crash in the token price and comes 18 months after the team raised $7.5 million in a June 2018 ICO.
Omnitude Burns Through $416,000 Per Month
Omnitude founder Chris Painter took to Telegram to announce that the jig was up for the project, with the team unable to secure further funding before April at the earliest, having worked through $416,000 per month since the ICO. The lack of forthcoming funding, Painter claims, has forced him into a corner regarding Omnitude’s future:
We have no choice now but to cease operations until further funding can be obtained, this is something myself and Jurie will be exploring, whilst also having no choice but to seek other employment.
Painter added that he and the team have been “seriously and continuously mislead [sic] for the past year” in terms of funding, and explored “hundreds” of other avenues in order to raise more money, but that “there isn’t any investment appetite for blockchain.” Painter added that he will continue searching for funding while undertaking other work, but the odds of anything coming from this look slim at best.
Writing on the Wall
The writing was somewhat on the wall for Omnitude in the second half of last year when their social media interactions began to reduce significantly – the group’s Medium account hasn’t been added to since August 2018, while the last Twitter and Facebook posts were in October. The Reddit group has seen six comments across 44 posts in the last year, suggesting that social engagement has been almost non-existent for some time.
October Exit Pump?
Assuming that the team had a strong idea of what was on the cards at this point, it is somewhat suspicious that the ECOM token enjoyed a series of huge price pumps between October 1-11:
The biggest of these was a monster 361% jump on October 8, with volume doubling, suggesting a huge number of tokens being sold as the price rocketed. Of course this could have been token holders making the most of the unexpected price rise to divest themselves of tokens, but it is far more likely to think that this was the archetypal exit pump, designed to allow those on the inside to ditch their tokens at an artificially inflated price prior to abandoning the project. Of course there is no solid evidence for this, but it fits a pattern we have seen time and time again in the space.
