TenX co-founder and president Julian Hosp has announced that he has parted ways with the project he founded in 2017, citing that it was the “only way forward” for the project following a turbulent 2018. The company was one of the bright hopes for crypto adoption when it launched, offering crypto holders a way to spend their tokens just like fiat currency through the TenX card. Sadly, these hopes have since depleted and a year of broken promises and unwanted distractions has followed. The company spent 2018 struggling with missed deadlines and accusations of misinformation being spread by Hosp, leading to yesterday’s announcement.
In his resignation video, a clearly emotional Hosp praises the remaining TenX team and wishes them success, before announcing that he will take some time off. Some commenters on social media wish him well, but the overriding tone of the responses to the video highlights the divisions that are clearly evident within the project. There are claims of TenX being a “sinking ship”, one asks for “a decent and honest answer for once” and others say they feel let down by Hosp on a personal level, having previously looked up to him.
TenX’s Rocky Ride in 2018
The tide of faith in TenX seems began to turn following the Visa/Wavecrest ban. This put back TenX’s card launch, but it didn’t stop Hosp announcing a launch of Q1 in 2018, with Visa as the partner. This deadline came and went with no card, during which time TenX underwent a rebranding, much to some users’ disdain. A sneak preview of the card finally came in August 2018 with a launch planned initially in Asia, although timeframes were still not clarified. Test cards were sent to TenX employees in September, with Visa still confirming that they would not support cards that offered ‘spot conversion’ of crypto to fiat, which was key to the TenX offer.
In November a stinging Tweet-thread was posted by crypto analyst Larry Cermak which condensed the situation with the card, the financial precariousness of the company, and some other questionable practices to date:
1/ I think it’s time to revisit TenX today. PAY token is now 93% from its all time high. People that bought during the ICO are now down ~30%. TenX is a company that never keeps the promises that it makes. pic.twitter.com/88Wm91WTMA
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) November 17, 2018
The Beginning of the End
In December 2018 a video emerged of Hosp addressing a multi-level marketing seminar in Austria, which though hotly contested drew unwanted attention to Hosp and TenX, including the fact that they had not had a viable product for almost a year. What bothered investors just as much, if not more, was that other card providers such as Monaco were making great headway in the space TenX could have dominated. A month after these revelations it seems that Hosp’s indiscretions, and a year of seemingly little progress, had opened up a seismic split in the boardroom, which has ended with Hosp stepping away.
Whether TenX can recover remains to be seen, but cutting ties with someone who the community perceived as being a negative influence may help their cause.
