The Singaporean blockchain startup TenX announced a change to its business model. The forced withdrawal from current services is linked to the collapse of German fintech Wirecard, which was involved in issuing TenX payment cards.
Sunsetting of current services & a new dawn at TenXhttps://t.co/JXGPGJAFYT
— TenX (@tenxwallet) October 2, 2020
By October 14, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) directed the local Wirecard subsidiary to cease operations and return funds to customers.
As a result, from October 1, the physical and virtual TenX Visa cards for customers in the Asia-Pacific region have been suspended. In the near term, European Economic Area cards will be deactivated, where Wirecard has filed for bankruptcy.
“TenX Wallet will remain accessible even after the cards are deactivated, so customers can access and withdraw their cryptocurrencies at any time. We will also fully reimburse funds to users who prepaid for cards,” the representatives of the blockchain startup said.
The TenX team has focused on building a new platform for cryptocurrency payments. The project’s internal TENX and PAY tokens will move into this ecosystem, the developers added.
The company did not explain why it abandoned new partnerships for issuing payment cards in favor of Wirecard.
According to former TenX CEO Julian Hosp, the company’s CFO Toby Hoenisch left Singapore. However, representatives of the startup deny any internal problems:
“We have good funding, and our management team, including Toby, works hard every day to bring a quality product to market,” they said in a Handelsblatt interview.
TenX was known for issuing crypto-backed bank cards that allowed spending digital money in the real world. In 2017, the project conducted an ICO that raised about $83 million.
In January 2019, co-founder and president Julian Hosp left his post amid a scandal surrounding his ties to the Lyoness pyramid scheme.
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