Mark Karpelès, known for the Mt. Gox affair and 850,000 Bitcoins (BTC) lost according to estimates, wants to found his rating agency in the blockchain sector. He presents UnGox, but will have to prove himself to show the seriousness of this new project.
Mark Karpelès to launch rating agency UnGox
Mark Karpelès, former CEO of the infamous Mt. Gox platform announces he wants to return to the blockchain and crypto assets industry by launching his own rating agency called UnGox.
The aim of this new project is to provide investors with information on the seriousness and reliability of various decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols and cryptocurrency exchanges to guide them in their research.
About to be live at the @fccjapan regarding the MtGoxNFT and UNGOX. Will start at 12:30 JST. https://t.co/GvPWBQbyts
– Mark Karpelès (@MagicalTux) April 11, 2022
Mark Karpelès uses his personal experience to illustrate his capabilities in this area. The Mt. Gox exchange had indeed suffered various hacks throughout its existence. A final attack in February 2014 brought the total loss to 850,000 Bitcoins (BTC) and put the platform out of business for good:
“I’ve been through pretty much every problem a trading platform can encounter […], I’ve accumulated a lot of experience in cryptocurrencies. My goal is to make sure this never happens again. “
In fact, to put the disaster at the time into perspective, 850,000 BTC amounted to nearly 7% of the Bitcoins in circulation. Moreover, Bitcoin accounted for almost the entire market by capitalising $7.5 billion at the time of the event, with Litecoin coming in second at $400 million.
An unmanaged presentation
Looking at the interview with Mark Karpelès, the solidity of this rating agency project may leave room for doubt. However, we learn that UnGox will offer a free version as well as premium information via a subscription system.
When asked if investors support the idea and if there are plans to recruit white hats, Mark Karpelès said that funding is underway and that ten analysts are to be recruited, but did not give any names for the sake of anonymity.
However, where one senses that he is in trouble with what the market is today is when he was asked about his evaluation criteria for judging a project. He said, for example, that anonymous founders can be a warning point or that if you offer 50% returns per month, it’s a scam.
These are indeed criteria that need to be explored, but they do not categorically classify a DeFi protocol as a scam. Anonymity, or at least pseudonymity, is common and very high returns regularly appear at the beginning of a project’s life when liquidity is not yet available.
As we have little information to date, we cannot be too hasty in our judgement. But it is certain that Mark Karpelès will have to prove himself in order to show that he is up to date with the latest blockchain technologies.
Indeed, since 2014, the market has evolved considerably, moreover Ethereum (ETH) did not even exist and we have witnessed, since then, a real professionalization of the blockchain ecosystem.
