Actor Steven Seagal started supporting the “Bitcoiin” cryptocurrency last year as the new token’s brand ambassador. Now that relationship is over, as Bitcoiin posted a statement today that Seagal and the unnamed founders of the coin were walking away from the project since the token sale has ended.

“From this point on Bitcoiin will function within its ecosystem and become a genuinely anonymous currency with no individual or individuals having control over the entity!” the post declares. Bitcoiin has been a dubious coin since its launch and this mysterious exit, which removes the only recognizable figure associated with the coin — Steven Seagal — doesn’t help. It’s also unknown how much money the ICO raised, although Bitcoiin said it exceeded its $75 million goal at least.

On March 7th, regulators in New Jersey sent Bitcoiin founders a cease-and-desist order, saying that the founders had never registered to sell securities in the state. Authorities on the federal and state level have been cracking down on cryptocurrencies in recent months, especially on initial coin offerings (ICOs), which the SEC has categorized as a security subject to regulation. SEC chairman Jay Clayton admitted in February that that zero ICOs had registered with the SEC as of yet, even though some sites estimate that ICOs raised nearly $4 billion last year.

The founders of Bitcoiin have so far been anonymous, although Coindesk spotted that BehindMLM, a blog that tracks marketing schemes, reported several individuals as at least affliated with Bitcoiin and highlighted a Facebook comment on its page saying there were “very rich people” behind it. Steven Seagal has not come out with a statement yet to confirm his exit, and he still has a tweet celebrating how he became brand ambassador for Bitcoiin pinned to his Twitter page.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/26/17165472/bitcoiin-steven-seagal-founders-exit-after-ico