Steven Seagal in hot water with US regulators over Bitcoiin

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It has the makings of a Steven Seagal action film, but his much publicized and vaunted cryptocurrency called Bitcoiin—yes, with two i’s—doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

In fact the regulatory authorities in Tennessee and New Jersey are sending out stark warnings that potential investors who are thinking of investing in this new cryptocurrency should avoid Bitcoiin at all costs as it has all the makings of a pyramid scheme, which means it’s most probably a scam.

The Bitcoiin 2nd Generation (Bitcoiin2Gen) project, backed by Seagal in the form of a brand ambassador, is another much vaunted ICO with the name Bitcoiin apparently aiming to create confusion. It is quite wise to point out that this cryptocurrency has absolutely no links with legacy Bitcoin, and, according to a CoinDesk report, has some features of a classic pyramid scheme.

Bitcoiin2Gen claimed to be based on the ethereum blockchain, with a mining component via a partnership with Dragon Mining. Bitcoiin holders were promised “considerable profit from holding” the coin through staking or depository process. The project also offered affiliate rewards for people who can bring “investor interest” ahead of its token sale.

These warning signals should be more than enough for potential investors in the cryptocurrency but apparently there’s more bad news for Seagal’s Bitcoiin. The New Jersey Bureau for Securities has issued a cease and desist order for the currency, calling it an unregistered security. It also pointed out the unclear relationship that Seagal has with the coin.

Last week the ICO was slapped with another alert, this time from the Department of Commerce and Insurance in Tennessee, indicating that the token was not registered with the state and that investors who were thinking of getting into cryptocurrencies should be extremely cautious before doing so. Amongst the red flags that the Tennessee watchdog indicated were the talk of extremely high returns in a short space of time, low risk, intense pressure to buy and massive social media advertising.

Seagal has been touting his cryptocurrency no end as he looks for investors for the coin’s ICO. However, although 2017 was great year for such ICOs, 2018 has not been so since more than half of the projects have collapsed and several have turned out to be frauds running away with millions of dollars. The cryptocurrency market has been booming with celebrities endorsing it over the past month, but such touting could also be liable to prosecution so Seagal had better be careful—no one is above the law.