ICON Foundation (ICX) promoted Blue Whale Foundation (BWX) as ICON’s first dApp, raising millions of dollars for its ICO — only for the project to shut down abruptly, leaving investors at a loss.
The abrupt closure of ICON’s first dApp ($ICX), Blue Whale Foundation ($BWX).
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Background: I was the English Communication/Community Manager for ICON Foundation (ICX) from 2018–2020, and fully left the ICON community/blockchain space ~2021. I also served as a “Marketing Coordinator” for ICON’s first dApp, Blue Whale Foundation (BWX). This was only for a few months before the ICO with my contract ending after the end of the ICO.
I wanted to share my experience and story working for ICON ($ICX) and Blue Whale Foundation ($BWX), and think it’s important that this is shared due to the blatant censorship happening across many platforms by the current ICON mods/community managers.
Blue Whale Foundation, a project that abruptly closed down after raising nearly $20million USD, was endorsed and actively promoted by ICON and it’s council members as ICON’s first dApp. BWX was aggressively promoted by the ICON team (which I also was a part of). However, I had every reason to believe BWX was a legitimate project before joining them since ICON endorsed them, and there were two executive level council members from the ICON team serving as project advisors for BWX.
The council members that served on the advisor team for Blue Whale Foundation was Kyungjoon Lee & Jonghyup Kim, the CEO of DAYLI Intelligence (CEO of ICONLOOP/PARAMETA) respectively were on Blue Whale’s team of advisors. There have been many sources that have been deleted, removed, and/or taken down regarding this topic — however, I was able to still find one source that confirms my statements.
Blue Whale (BWX), which received KRW 23 billion in investment, suddenly suspends business…investors suggest legal action. — May 2022, Korea Politics News
According to available information, 12% of the 23 billion won raised (approximately $21 million USD at the time) amounts to about $2.52 million USD allocated for the advisory team of seven people. If divided equally, each advisor, including ICON Council Members, may have received approximately $300,000 USD from the ICO.
There are allegations that they promoted a project that lacked substantive value, possibly neglecting their due diligence in the process. It appears that receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars at the expense of their own community members may have influenced their actions, raising serious concerns. Such actions appear to undermine the community’s trust at best and, at worst, suggest a serious neglect of ethical obligations.
If ICON and it’s council members are going to promote and endorse a project to its community members, and also serve directly on the advisory team for that project while receiving compensation, it becomes their responsibility and ethical obligation to conduct thorough due diligence. They should ensure that the projects they associate with and promote are operating ethically and have substantive value beyond being merely an empty shell. However, without transparency and accountability from ICON regarding these concerns, or a thorough investigation by a regulatory body, the community may never fully understand the extent of any oversights or issues that may have occurred.
What we do know is that Blue Whale’s founder, Wonhong ‘Will’ Lee, was sued in the State of California by a former employee of another startup that Will created, Verlocal. Source: https://freemanlaw.com/initial-coin-offering-lawsuits/
There is speculation that Will Lee took the millions of dollars raised from Blue Whale Foundation’s ICO to help fund another one of his other startups, Shareable Assets which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Interopera, a start-up that he serves as Chairman & CEO. While Will Lee describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, some have raised concerns about the financial management of his projects.
This medium covering Blue Whale’s abrupt closure is apparently under review. https://medium.com/@truesahistory/the-hidden-story-of-shareable-asset-bluewhale-part-1-between-expedient-and-illegal-c1916397e15
Another article that was also taken down as well: https://medium.com/@pejobi4916/my-coin-investment-failure-experience-shareable-asset-bluewhale-bwx-coin-moral-hazardous-3ac7cc4d4c29
My attempts to take accountability, apologize, and share my honest account and experience regarding the whole situation on the /r/helloicon subreddit did not just squashed and deleted by a moderator that I picked up, but it also got me permanently banned for spreading “FUD” — a term that the moderators seem to have a difficult time understanding.
An acronym that stands for “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.” It is a strategy to influence perception of certain cryptocurrencies or the cryptocurrency market in general by spreading negative, misleading or false information. — Coinmarketcap
Nothing I said was misleading nor was it false, but all because the information I shared was not positive or promotional of ICON doesn’t make it “FUD.”
Min loves the “underpromise, overdeliver” philosophy. It’s no surprise that he does. Maybe because the philosophy/strategy is typically rooted in manipulation. Deliberately setting expectations low means to intentionally mislead, and by doing so, trust inevitably erodes. Losing trust = Losing community members.
Since its inception, many supporters and investors have felt let down by the project’s outcomes. The numerous, very publicized MOUs announced with prominent companies and institutions raised high expectations, but the lack of tangible results has been a source of frustration and disappointment. This had led to growing concerns with many current/former community members, most of whom had now since abandoned and stopped supporting the project. The ones that are seemingly active are seemingly paid p-reps and moderators (who are also p-reps) for the most part.
Also, for full disclosure, even though I worked for ICON Foundation, I never actually invested or held ICX. I made this article, not because I’m a salty investor that lost money, but to inform and spread awareness. I actually got paid (not a lot though, and not in ICX) working for both ICON and Blue Whale Foundation, so my only motivation for making this post is purely to try and inform and educate because articles, information, websites, etc are all being taken down or deleted. I made this article because far too many projects get away with sketchy practices with zero accountability. Far too many people were silenced (including myself) for wanting some accountability and for being honest/transparent. Apparently, anything critical of ICON, no matter how valid or rooted in truth it is, is considered “FUD,” and will certainly get you permanently banned. Frankly, I think people deserve to know and deserve better than what ICON/ICX is/provides.
If anyone has any information or would like to share their experience regarding Blue Whale Foundation ($BWX) and ICON Foundation ($ICX) that is relevant to what I am trying to cover, please reach out to me on basically any platform. https://reddit.com/u/naxypoo and https://x.com/naxypoo or https://medium.com/@naxy — preferably contact me via reddit or twitter in the event this gets taken down.
I have reached out to Min Kim regarding this, and he has refused to comment by blocking me on twitter.
All past members of Blue Whale Foundation that I had contact with at the time declined to comment. ICON Foundation has also declined to comment.
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Documenting the blatant shilling / censorship of /r/helloicon subreddit.
1st thread that got deleted:
comment section of 3rd post that got deleted.
https://www.reddit.com/r/helloicon/comments/1buno39/to_existing_community_members_how_do_you_guys/
