• The Retardio project promotes a Solana-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection which has gained around $31 million in lifetime sales, as per the NFT tokens data analyzer.

  • The FCA also urged customers to report unauthorized companies by getting in touch with their official channels.

  • The regulator revealed that authorized companies provide more protection to customers when something is fishy.

The Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom alerted about the Solana-based “Retardio” project, quoting concerns relating to unauthorized financial promotions as well as activities aimed at UK customers. 

On December 16, the FCA alerted the users against the Retardio project highlighting that the token may be offering or publicizing financial services without the permission of the regulators. The Authority also emphasized that consumers should only deal with FCA-approved companies to ensure enough protection. 

The “Retardio Project”

The Retardio project promotes a Solana-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection which has gained around $31 million in lifetime sales, as per the NFT tokens data analyzer. Its related memecoin, trading with a ticker Retardio is estimated at around $0.08 having a market capitalization of around $87 million, according to Dexscreener. 

As per the Financial Conduct Authority, UK-based users who deal with the Retardio project will not have a way into the Financial Ombudsman Service. This service helps in settling complaints between consumers and financial services businesses. 

The regulator also mentioned that customers would not be safeguarded by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), a service that safeguards consumers when financial companies go out of business. This means that it is not likely that you will get your money back if the company goes out of business, the authority further said. 

It also requested citizens to deal only with authorized companies. The regulator revealed that authorized companies provide more protection to customers when something is fishy. It also said that users can go through their registry to make sure that the firm they are dealing with is authorized in the United Kingdom. 

Report unauthorized companies 

The FCA also urged customers to report unauthorized companies by getting in touch with their official channels. The memecoin as well as the NFT project jovially replied to the FCA, mentioning that it has issued an alert against the financial regulator of the United Kingdom. 

The Chairman of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu gave an interview with a prominent media outlet in which he revealed that memecoins grab the value of user attention, different from traditional metrics on social platforms. 

He further went on to add that at the same time attention on social media platforms does not clearly reveal the value of user-generated content (UGC), the working mechanism of memecoin is different. 

Siu also mentioned that in Web3, UGC culture is rooted in memecoins, having their market capitalization showing the value of the attention they grab. If attention was a token, that is mainly what memecoins show. And so I think of it as linked between then, said the Chairman.