Elastos (ELA) has carried out a major modification of its token lock-in program. The company is planning to return all the ELA tokens to its holders as part of the new changes. The move comes on the wings of growing concerns that the program did not comply with international regulations.

Elastos (ELA) Lock-In Program

The lock-in program presented an opportunity for ELA holders to vest their tokens with the Elastos Foundation. The vest-in period was set at between one and three years. However, the company, which is building a blockchain-powered internet infrastructure, has had to terminate it altogether.

Consequently, lock-in ELA holders have started to receive communications from the foundation. November 5th is the final day when the foundation hopes to have returned all the ELA tokens to its holders. The tokens deposited to specified wallets will come with a 4% bonus.

Angel investors, on the other hand, will have their tokens returned before the 20th of November. Likewise, the Elastos Foundation has confirmed that Cyber Republic will assume control of 16 million ELA tokens initially allocated to it. Cyber Republic will also take charge of all the ELA mined this year by the Elastos Foundation.

“After consulting with trusted advisers within the Elastos ecosystem, including legal experts, we have made the decision to unwind our lock-up program and end it early,” said Rong Chen, Chairman of the Elastos Foundation.

Investment Community Reaction

The decision to unwind the lock-in program has not gone well with the ELA investment community. Consequently, ELA came under immense short-selling pressure. The coin plummeted by about 15% against the US dollar after the publication hit the wires. The plunge saw the token fall outside the top hundred cryptocurrencies in the world by market cap.

The plunge in price does not come as a surprise given that many investors considered the lockup program an important aspect of the blockchain project. Investors wary of the project’s long-term prospect could as well have sold off their positions.

Elastos’ Mission

Elastos is seeking to be the first completely secure environment where decentralized applications (dApps) are detached from the Internet. While permitting full scalability, the project also seeks to allow full ownership and wealth generation on digital assets.

With 18 years of development, Elastos has continued to attract high profile investments. The project currently boasts of investments from both Bitmain and NEO. It has also inked sponsorship deals with industry giants such as Tsinghua Science Park. Likewise, Elastos also boasts of a strategic partnership with Shanghai Shijiu TV, which is the world’s leading HTML5 developer in smart TV development.

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