Spanish Mining Startup to Return $68 Million Raised During ICO

Spanish cryptocurrency mining startup CryptoSolarTech will return $68 million raised during its initial coin offering (ICO). A screenshot of an official letter sent to investors was posted on Twitter Wednesday, Feb. 20 by Spanish IT lawyer Sergio Carrasco.

CryptoSolarTech apparently aimed to build a crypto mining facility powered by solar energy in Southern Spain, but failed to get a building permit. Citing reasons beyond their control, the founders of the project promised to return funds within 60 days. The startup also claimed that it is not responsible for any of the tokens purchased after Feb. 19.

In June 2018, CryptoSolarTech released its own token via an ICO to financе its operations. The mining project raised around $68 million in less than two months during the summer of 2018, which was over 6,500 percent of the minimum investment of 900,000 euros. Most of the funds raised came from Singapore and Spain.

However, in several months the company’s token lost the vast majority of its value, making it into the top ten ICO ‘losers’ in research released late September by crypto analytics firm Diar.

In October, 2018, Chinese energy company Risen Energy announced a partnership with CryptoSolarTech to help it develop 300 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic power capacity, and take on engineering and construction responsibilities for the electricity project.

Last month, blockchain tech firm and Bitcoin mining manufacturer Bitfury revealed its plans to launch several mining facilities in Paraguay. The facilities will cover 200,000 square meters and will be supplied with electricity from a 500MW power substation.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the number of ICOs in Q4 2018 raised 25 percent less than in Q3, while the total amount of completed ICOs increased. The amount of ICOs has generally decreased in comparison to 2018, but the number of early 2019 projects is still higher than in the same time period of 2017.