The Thor token project is shutting down after failing to gain traction, and CEO David Chin disputes rumors of the project burning through $21 million.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem can often be a harsh and unforgiving place. Many projects are started by developers who have grand dreams, but not every project is a winner – or even reaches completion. One such project that has fallen upon hard times is the Thor token, and the project is officially shutting down.

End of the Road for Thor Token

The Thor token project was created to provide a measure of stability for those taking part in the gig economy. As traditional business models erode every year, more and more people are transferring to the gig workforce instead of staying a traditional employee. A full 35 percent of the U.S. workforce are gig workers currently, and that percentage is expected to jump to 43 percent by 2020.

Thor, built upon the Neo network, says it could not overcome “regulatory” issues in the United States, so the entire project is shutting down. The official announcement states:

Thor ran into many regulatory challenges while operating that prevented us from achieving what we set out to in our white paper. We hope that the economic environment in the future will be conducive enough to support innovation and we will have the opportunity to serve you better. We are sorry to have stayed silent for so long. We have been working behind the scenes to explore all possible options, including finding a way to raise enough capital to face the lack of sales or finding the company a new home where our technology could benefit from more resources. During this process, we were unable to share Thor’s status publicly for business and legal constraints. Ultimately, it has become clear that the only course of action for Thor is to shutter its doors. Thank you for your support over the last year. All Thor code and products will remain open source for the community to use, modify, or fork, for its benefit.

Dispute Over ICO Funds Raised

The project says it looked to outside investors to keep it going but to no avail. The announcement notes:

We have been exploring multiple options for Thor. We would like the project to continue in the hands of the right person and/or entity. Unfortunately we have not been able to find the right fit for an acquisition at this time.

One issue of contention is that Thor supposedly raised $21 million during their ICO, which ended on April 6, 2018. CEO David Chin says the reported figure is wildly inaccurate. He says the ICO actually raised $1.9 million (via 26,727 NEO; 4,296 GAS; and 1,189 ETH). Chin added that 7,069,224 THOR tokens were distributed while 50 million were kept by the company. A further 42,930,776 tokens were burned. The 90 percent decline in the cryptocurrency market in 2018 resulted in the company actually having only $1 million worth of operating dollars.

Images courtesy of YouTube/Thor Technologies and Pexels.