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ASX Request Forces Public Gaming Firm to Spin Out New ICO Startup

Australia-based gaming company iCandy Interactive has been forced to alter plans to launch a token for a new gaming marketplace.

icandy

Game maker iCandy Interactive has altered its plans to launch a cryptocurrency following talks with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

According to an ASX announcement, iCandy had planned to develop the token – called "NOX" – itself, as a means to add functionality to a new gaming content marketplace. However, after a discussion with the ASX, during which iCandy's securities were suspended from quotation on the exchange, the firm said it has decided to no longer have any role in developing or managing either marketplace or token.

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With the ASX potentially considering the activities a change of direction for the firm, iCandy indicated that those efforts will now be undertaken by a separate company, though it will remain the sole game content supplier.

Speaking to local media source StockHead, iCandy chairman Kin-Wai Lau said:

"The discussion [with the ASX] was centered around whether by managing cryptocurrency, be it video-games related, iCandy has a change of its activities. We have since decided to focus on iCandy's key contribution to the Nitro project which is its ability to use its gamers and developers network to publish games funded by Nitro project."

The firm will continue to fund the development of the marketplace. However, rather than profiting directly from the platform, iCandy will now receive a fixed amount of 3 million NOX per year for its role, equivalent to 3,750 ether (around $1.5 million).

Intended to democratise the video-game economy, the Nitro project had been planned as a mobile-based marketplace allowing users to vote on featured games, using NOX as an internal currency.

Marketplace users could vote on projects with the token, which would then be translated into ethereum's native cryptocurrency, ether, and passed on to game designers to fund development.

According to Stockhead, the ASX has previously cracked down on companies that change activities without the approval of shareholders.

Toy tokens image via Shutterstock

Rachel-Rose O'Leary

Rachel-Rose O'Leary is a coder and writer at Dark Renaissance Technologies. She was lead tech writer for CoinDesk 2017-2018, covering privacy tech and Ethereum. She has a background in digital art and philosophy, and has been writing about crypto since 2015.

Rachel-Rose O'Leary