Cobinhood parts ways with co-founder, cites emotional instability

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Cobinhood has announced that it has parted ways with one of its co-founders. The Taiwanese cryptocurrency exchange revealed that Tai-yuan Chen had ceased to participate in the exchange’s corporate affairs since late April, 2019.

The exchange alleged that Chen’s emotional stability and personal behavior had become a source of concern for those working at the firm. Consequently, the employees had become concerned for their safety, Cobinhood stated in a Telegram post. As a result, the exchange had filed a police report. The firm noted:

“In order to protect the safety and rights of all employees of the company, all employees will work from home until personal safety can be ensured. All business, technology and product services of the company will proceed as usual.”

Cobinhood declined to reveal any specific details about its co-founder. However, it invited all its clients to submit any questions they had about Chen or any other matter relating to the company, promising to respond during a Q&A session on May 8 at 8:00 pm Taiwan time.

Popularly known as Popo Chen, Tai-yuan was one of the instrumental leaders that established Cobinhood back in 2017. Chen is also the founder of the Dexon Foundation, an organization whose blockchain platform promises to offer more decentralization, scalability and security. According to its website, Dexon is reportedly backed by top-tier VC firms including IDG Capital, which led the first round of $20 million investment. In the past, Chen also founded 17 Media, an Android and iOS live-streaming application that’s raised more than $33 million.

In an interview conducted by Huffington Post last year, Chen revealed that he decided to launch Cobinhood after his frustrations with the crypto exchanges that existed at the time. Being a day trader himself, he realized that his profits were being eaten into by the high fees that these exchanges charged. Therefore, he decided to launch Cobinhood, a zero-fee exchange, raising $10 million in its initial coin offering (ICO). The exchange had even enlisted the services of Hollywood star Jamie Foxx as their ambassador.

Looking forward to participating in the new @cobinhood Token! ZERO fee trading! #CryptoCurrency #BitCoin #ETH – https://t.co/1XFiosn22S pic.twitter.com/A7es0C2Rxr

— Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) September 18, 2017

Back then, the company was running smoothly. Chen even cited the great cooperation between the members of his team as the biggest factor for the exchange’s success. In an ironic twist, the team now wants him out of the firm he helped build.