Republic Crypto Denies Buying 10 Million ASTRA Tokens, Says Astra Gave Tokens To It As Part Of “Free Trial”
DIRECTION (March 9, 2023, 19:20 UTC): Revising full story to reflect Republic says Astra Protocol’s statement, on which CoinDesk based a March 7 article, was inaccurate and contained an unauthorized quote from a Republic executive.
Investment company Republic Crypto has denied buying 10 million of the Astra protocol’s initial tokens, claiming that – contrary to a statement this week from Astra – Republic was simply given pre-loaded wallets containing ASTRA to test whether the compliance platform would be suitable for their ecosystems.
Republic said it does not know how many tokens it was given, as Republic was not involved in the preloaded wallets.
CoinDesk, citing a press release from Astra Protocol, reported on March 7 that Republic purchased the tokens. A Republic spokesperson later said the firm had seen and objected to the details of the draft press release, which was sent out anyway, saying the release contained an unauthorized quote from Republic crypto chief Andrew Durgee, which Durgee did not prepare.
“Republic does not pay for these tokens and does not distribute tokens. ASTRA is responsible for the financial and administrative considerations involved in this free trial,” Durgee told CoinDesk in a March 9 Telegram message.
“The Republic as a whole is investigating the possibility of using the Astra protocol for KYC [Know Your Customer] without obligations to engage. Republic is starting to introduce Astra to issuers (companies traveling through Republic) that will allow those issuers to try their protocol for KYC purposes,” he added in the conversation with a CoinDesk journalist. “As you need ASTRA to use Astra- protocol, issuers would receive preloaded wallets that would allow them to test drive the protocol.”
“Republic does not pay for these tokens and does not distribute tokens. Nor does Republic set aside tokens for compliance purposes. Astra is responsible for the financial and administrative considerations involved in this free trial,” he continued. “A fund of Republic Capital, Republic’s VC arm, invested in the Astra protocol in 2021. This was the last token transaction. No further investment deals in Astra have taken place since then.” Republic participated in a $9 million Astra funding round announced in March 2022.
The Switzerland-based decentralized platform Astra Protocol offers know-your-customer (KYC), know-your-business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) systems. The original ASTRA token is required to use the platform.
CoinDesk reached out to Astra before publishing Republic’s rejection, but has not received a response by the time of publication.
