Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_62bb5c8981b98" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>After halting withdrawals last week, CoinFLEX announced it would launch a new token to raise $47 million</li>
                <li>Ver denies that he is the debtor and says CoinFLEX owes him a substantial amount of money</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>The chief executive of CoinFLEX alleged Tuesday that the former CEO of crypto trading platform and wallet provider <a href="http://bitcoin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin.com</a> owes the cryptocurrency exchange $47 million.</p>



<p>CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDavidLamb/status/1541831697787928576" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that Roger Ver, current executive chairman of Bitcoin.com, is a longtime customer and the counterparty whose outstanding debt forced the derivatives-focused exchange to halt withdrawals last week. The company on Monday moved to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinflex-plans-to-raise-missing-funds-with-new-token/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">issue a new token</a>, rvUSD, to stabilize its balance sheet, with the goal of raising at least $47 million. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Roger Ver owes CoinFLEX $47 Million USDC. We have a written contract with him obligating him to personally guarantee any negative equity on his CoinFLEX account and top up margin regularly. He has been in default of this agreement and we have served a notice of default.</p>&mdash; Mark Lamb 💪 (@MarkDavidLamb) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDavidLamb/status/1541831697787928576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Lamb told Bloomberg rvUSD will have a 20% yield, and — if $47 million is raised — users would be able to withdraw their funds in full.&nbsp;</p>



<p>After being suspected as the debtor by the anonymous crypto market participant <a href="https://twitter.com/FatManTerra/status/1541778973511884802" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FatManTerra</a>, Ver initially denied.</p>



<p>“Not only do I not have a debt to this counter party, but this counter party owes me a substantial amount of money,” Ver said at the time.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">While the debtor is pasting scripted rebuttals from his lawyer and the creditor claims they&#39;re in convo to resolve it while launching a questionable &quot;product&quot; to fill the gap. Disgraceful.<a href="https://t.co/sbTYQ7c0Gt">https://t.co/sbTYQ7c0Gt</a> <a href="https://t.co/Oyo11lHOxD">pic.twitter.com/Oyo11lHOxD</a></p>&mdash; DeFiyst (@DeFiyst) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeFiyst/status/1541837986626768896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>In defense of CoinFLEX, Lamb tweeted that “[Ver] is denying that the debt pertains to him and so we felt the need to clarify to the public that yes — the debt is 100% related to his account.”</p>



<p>He added that his company does not owe any debts to Ver, and that “his statement is blatantly false.”</p>



<p>Ver has been a proponent of a 2017 bitcoin fork, <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/assets/bch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin Cash (BCH)</a>, which was later <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin-cash.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">split again</a> into Bitcoin Cash ABC (remaining known as BCH) and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi&#8217;s Vision (BSV) the brainchild of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=craig+wright" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Craig Wright</a>. Despite neither fork being embraced by the market as the canonical bitcoin, they currently rank at number 32 and 49 by market cap, with the cryptoassets together worth about $3 billion, or about 0.7% the value of BTC.</p>



<p>As a bitcoin evangelist, Ver became known as “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/tech/who-roger-ver-bitcoin-jesus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin Jesus</a>.” He renounced <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-15/-bitcoin-jesus-calls-rich-to-tax-free-tropical-paradise" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">his US citizenship</a> in 2014, <a href="https://youtu.be/kApf5j-clzE?t=37" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">motivated in part</a> by his experience serving 10 months in federal prison for illegally selling explosives on eBay.</p>



<p>CoinFLEX and Ver did not immediately return requests for comment.</p>



<p><em>Correction: Roger Ver has served as the executive chairman of Bitcoin.com since Aug. 1, 2022. Dennis Jarvis is the current CEO. Updated June 29, 2022 at 9:00 am ET.</em></p>



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