• Basis, a stablecoin that had the backing of Bain Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Valor Capital, is shutting down
• The coin is reported to have faced issues with US regulators
• It had raised over $133 million in funding as of April 2018 and will return the funds to investors

There was a lot of interest earlier this year in Basis, a new stablecoin that launched its ICO back in April and raised over $133 million through backers like Bain Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Valor Capital, Google Ventures and Digital Currency Group.

It now seems that the buzz has died down and it has been announced by Intangible Labs, the parent company for Basis, that Basis is closing shop and returning the funds raised to its backers. From reports, it seems the Coin has issues with regulations that prevented it from achieving a full launch.

The History of Basis

According to the whitepaper, Basis was not poised to be your typical stablecoin. Rather than backing up the Coin with fiat currency, Basis was to be managed with operations similar to a bank and these operations were to be carried out by software rather than humans.

Signs of trouble arose when months after raising over $100 million, the stablecoin was yet to be launched on the market.

Basis did, however, have an impressive team behind it, including a former Goldman Sachs legal director.

Year of the stabelcoin

Stablecoins are one of the most polarizing offerings of the cryptocurrency industry.

A stablecoin is, essentially, a Cryptocurrency that is backed up by fiat currency held in reserve.

One of the reasons for stablecoins existing is the lack of faith that some have in traditional Cryptocurrency. They are getting listed on major exchanges and are seeing a healthy amount of institutional investment.

However, stablecoins such as Tether have been accused of being manipulation tools and a number of them have publicly disclosed their fiat currency reserves to dispel rumors.

In the case of Basis, it simply goes to show that stablecoins, as with any other venture, don’t always work out. In fact, it was one of 12 stablecoins that have raised over $50 million in funding but were yet to have launched on the secondary market.