A code rewrite with the Monaco token, removing its asset smart contract scheme has seen the coin’s value plunge, leading to a loss of trust among investors as they move away.
At the end of October, the Monaco token was trading around $10.51, with a market cap of $103 million. However, on the 2nd November, it had plunged to $4.75, pushing its value down to $46.6 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
This was despite the fact that Monaco had announced that it is teaming up with Visa for a Monaco Visa prepaid card.
At the time, Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Monaco, said:
Our team has worked incredibly hard over the past year to achieve this milestone. This is an important step towards Monaco’s vision to introduce cryptocurrency to the mass market.
It’s believed that over 17,000 of the Visa cards have been reserved.
Regardless of this, though, the code rewrite has caused investors to sell their tokens, resulting in a significant price drop.
In an explanatory video on social media, Marszalek said that it was down to ‘legal’ and ‘commercial’ concerns that had led to the decision.
He said:
This decision is great for the long-term protection of value for all token holders,” he said in the company’s defence.
News of this has brought much criticism from community members. Taking to Twitter, one individual by the name of Clutch, said:
Wake up people. For your own good. There’s another hundred other good crypto opportunities. $mco scam. They’re done.
Al Sobky added:
What’s the point of the tokens?? Ahhhh you have ripped the community off.. you should be ashamed of yourself.. glad I sold at the peak.
Yet, the team believes that by removing the asset contract scheme it will make them suitable to be listed on exchanges. It currently trades on Bittrex, YoBit and Binance; however, these exchanges trade the coin against bitcoin and ethereum. As such, speculation increases with little generation of fresh fiat currency.
Through its Visa card partnership it is offering up to two percent MCO token cashback on all transactions. These tokens can then be exchange for either bitcoin, ethereum or fiat, according to the Monaco website.
The Monaco token has since made a slight recovery and is currently trading at $6.45. It remains to be seen whether the token can boost its value again. At its peak, Monaco tokens were valued at over $27 in September, figures from CoinMarketCap show.