Steven Seagal’s crypto marked for death by New Jersey

It’s hyped, involves of millions dollars, and has Steven Seagal. It’s not another box office bomb but a new cryptocurrency that, like a Seagal movie, is a hot mess just days before its release. Only this time, it’s New Jersey’s government and not angry studio execs trying to pull the plug.

The Asbury Park Press reported Wednesday that New Jersey’s Bureau of Securities has ordered the company pushing “Bitcoiin” (yes, that’s an extra “i” and, no, it’s not bitcoin) to stop selling its token ahead of its ICO to investors in the state. The regulators deem it an unregistered security.

The guys (really, it’s almost always guys) behind Bitcoiin hired faded action star Seagal as a “brand ambassador” to promote their new coin, which has an ICO date set for March 26. They’re calling the token “Bitcoiin 2nd Generation” or “B2G”. While there’s obviously a “bitcoin”, there’s no known “Bitcoiin 1st Generation”.

Seagal’s involvement, minimal though it may be, did in fact garner press attention but not the kind even sketchy companies want to get. Story after story referred to B2G as “questionable”.

And, indeed, there are many questions such as, “What does that extra ‘i’ stand for?” or “Why is it called ‘Bitcoiin’ when it’s built on the Ethereum blockchain?” or, as New Jersey’s Bureau of Securities wants to know, “Who are the principals behind this coin? What is the physical address of the business? Why hasn’t the company included the risks associated with Bitcoiin in its offering? Why hasn’t the company revealed that it has paid its ‘brand ambassadors’ as they’re supposed to do with a securities offering?”

One can go on and on.

Bitcoiin’s site promises B2G to be faster, safer, more scalable, and offer “unique earning opportunities”, presumably for the company itself. There’s no technical white paper available yet even though it’s supposed to go to market in a couple of weeks.

However, that may not be the top thing on Steven Seagal’s mind at the moment. The direct-to-video king is finding himself under siege once again for allegations of sexual misconduct. In January, actress Regina Simons accused Segal of raping her in 1993 after the wrap party for the film “On Deadly Ground”. Other actresses who have accused Seagal of various forms of sexual harassment include Jenny McCarthy and Portia de Rossi.

Seagal has also been quite lovingly cozy with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian dictator Ramzan Kadyrov.

Come to think of it, perhaps the extra “i” in “Bitcoiin” is the vowel missing in the word “sh*tcoin”.