eSports betting operator Unikrn is planning to sell $100 million worth of cryptocurrency tokens as part of an initial coin offering (ICO) in September.
The tokens are called UnikoinGold, which the Seattle-based start-up said are exclusive for its skill-based betting platform. The digital currency is designed as a decentralized token on the distributed server processing system Ethereum platform, which means that it can be bought, sold and traded on digital currency exchanges that deal with Ethereum.
The presale registration period for UnikoinGold is already over, but Unikrn announced that the public token sale for the cryptocurrency will take place on September 22, 2017.
Unikrn, which has partnered with CoinCircle for the ICO, plans to “use the proceeds to help fund the growth of its business,” GeekWire reported. Mark Cuban already said that he will participate in Unikrn’s ICO, despite declaring the bitcoin was in a bubble.
Created in 2014, Unikrn offers real money betting on eSports events in the UK and Australian markets. A year later, the start-up raised $10 million in venture funding from investors including Cuban, Ashton Kutcher, Binary Capital and Indicator Ventures, among others.
This time, the esports betting company is looking to raise funds via an ICO. In some ways, an ICO is similar to an initial public offering, but instead of stock, a company will sell cryptocurrency tokens. The difference, according to Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood, is that token sales are “not an investment because it’s completely liquid.”
“It’s almost like you are buying a specific currency that you can trade with and use on our platform,” Sood told GeekWire in an earlier interview.
UnikoinGold is the offshoot of the virtual coin Unikoin, which Unikrn launched in 2015. The original version of the virtual currency—now called UnikoinSilver—were available only on Unikrn’s platform, but the start-up said UnikoinGold can be purchased or sold on third party exchanges, or even withdrawn from Unikrn altogether. This allows the company to bypass some betting laws, according to the UnikoinGold whitepaper, but it didn’t specify which laws.
A spokesperson for Unikrn told Mashable that the two version of Unikoin will be available to everyone, although UnikoinSilver users can only enter raffle contests, while UnikoinGold users can use their virtual coins to bet.
