A CRYPTOCURRENCY project launched by Scottish businesswoman Baroness Mone has come under fire amid claims betting on horses would be more profitable, a Treasury Select Committee MP has stated.
Baroness Mone launched the 'Equi' venture with her partner Doug Barrowman.
It hopes to raise a total of more than £50million through an "initial coin offering" (ICO) – where a percentage of the cryptocurrency is sold to early backers of the project – with the money funding a new investment platform called Equi Capital.
The Equi coin will be launched to the general public on March 15, but started its pre-sale last Thursday for which a minimum investment of $100,000 (£72,400) is required.
The scheme is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and it is not being sold to US investors.
“You would be better going off to the bookies than investing in this scheme,” said John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a member of the Commons’ Treasury select committee, according to a report by the Sunday Times.
Last week the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, called for stricter regulation of digital currencies, warning they were “reliant in part on finding the greater fool” and “exhibited the classic hallmarks of a bubble”.
Mone, 46, rose to prominence as the founder of Ultimo Brands lingerie, which developed the silicon-padded bra, and she was made a peer in 2015.
In a promotional video on YouTube for Equi, Mone urges people to sign up to her new venture.
On the Equi website is warns of the risks involved in investment.
It says: "Investing in early stage businesses involves risks including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution.
"Investors should therefore implement a diversification strategy when building a portfolio on the EQUI platform.
"Diversification across multiple projects will spread risk and reduce the impact of adverse market conditions."
Citizens of the United States of America, Canada, South Korea, China and Singapore are unable to invest.
The FCA said it could not comment on whether specific funds complied with its rules, but has warned consumers about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, which it says are unregulated, high-risk and speculative investments.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel