For the past two months Venom Foundation, a blockchain infrastructure provider has been publishing press releases, originating from what is pointed out as UAE, which eventually prompted the Abu Dhabi Global Market, which had once housed Venom Foundation, to point out that Venom Foundation no longer operates from ADGM.
In April Venom Foundation in a press release coming out of UAE stated that it had partnered with Gate.io a crypto exchange to promote strategic token projects on the Venom Network.
As per the press release, the companies will showcase the collaboration during the Venom TokenForge hackathon this week in Dubai. At the time Venom Foundation CEO Christopher Louis Tsu said; “Gate.io is a leader and a strategic partner for Venom. Venom has launched the most scalable layer zero blockchain network for Defi and payment Dapps and will facilitate the rollout of the most unique and promising projects on its network and on Gate.io”
Interestingly in the same press release Venom Foundation noted that its mission was to bring transparency and innovation to the industry as a leading global blockchain company. They added, “We aim to provide infrastructure for governments and web3 projects while empowering emerging economies in the Middle East and North Africa with our unique technology.” This was despite the fact that in March 2024 Venom Foundation announced that it had exited UAE ADGM and established a new foundation in the Cayman Islands.
The announcement came just one year after Venom Foundation registered itself in ADGM.
But this was not the only press release that came out in April alluding to the presence of Venom Foundation in UAE. In April as well Venom announced it joined forces with Banxa to offer Venom supported tokens. As mentioned then, “Integrating Venom foundation network to the Banxa Fiat rails will further boost the business value Venom presents to its Dapps and token developers’ community.
Even more so on April 9th Venom in a press release stated that it was marking a “ milestone in the technology sector of Abu Dhabi, a visionary team has launched the Venom Blockchain, a high-caliber project that has swiftly achieved a market cap surpassing $5.2 billion, with exchange volumes toppling $200 million on leading platforms. This remarkable feat underscores Abu Dhabi’s emerging role as a crucible of innovation and technological progress within the global fintech industry.
This was clearly a misleading press release given they had exited Abu Dhabi in March 2024. Even in March 2024, Venom Foundation also released that UAE Alpha MBM Investments group, the private investment office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum, had made an investment in Venom Blockchain to launch digital currency initiatives across Africa, including Uganda, Somalia, and the Central African Republic.
As per the press release, the collaboration, bolstered by Alpha MBM Group’s investment in the Venom Blockchain, will leverage Alpha MBM Investment’s expertise in compliance solutions and Venom Foundation’s innovative blockchain technology. Together, they will focus on developing stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), establishing cryptocurrency exchanges, and implementing real-world asset tokenization projects within the agreed-upon regions.
The confusion and turmoil in Venom Foundation dates back to 2023, when Alibek Garcia Isaev, one of the main investors in Venom Foundation, was pushed into the center of a very controversial legal entanglement which brought a lot of criticism not only to Issaev but inadvertently Venom Blockchain, and its Foundation. He was then found innocent in December 2023.
But before the final ruling, Venom had also lost one of its very early investors and executives. Mustafa Kheriba, the Executive Chairman of Venomex, a UAE regulated crypto exchange and one of the initial investors and supporters of UAE based Venom Blockchain Foundation resigned from his position at Venom Foundation.
It is noteworthy that it seems the relationship between Venomex and Venom Foundation is no longer present. Venomex looks to be a standalone entity still regulated in ADGM.
So it was no surprise when Abu Dhabi Global Market, through its Registration Authority (RA) informed the public this week, that “Venom Foundation, an ADGM registered foundation with registration number 000008382 (Venom Foundation ADGM), is no longer conducting any activities in ADGM having voluntarily cancelled its commercial licence in February 2024 and appointed a liquidator in March 2024 to wind down the foundation.”
ADGM also noted, that in addition to Venom Foundation ADGM, associated ADGM companies Venom Blockchain Holding Limited with registration number 000007380 and Venom Blockchain Holding 2 Limited with registration number 000010061 also appointed a liquidator in March 2024 to wind down those companies.
The registration authority alerted members of the public that Venom Foundation ADGM and the associated ADGM companies are not associated with activities mentioned in recent social media announcements concerning the launch of Venom Blockchain. References in the recent social media to Venom Foundation are not to Venom Foundation ADGM.
So it seems that even long after the bite, the venom lingers on.
