The UK financial regulator warns investors about the $87 million memecoin project Retardio, claiming that this project operates illegally and is unprotected.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning about the Retardio project, a memecoin and NFT project based on the Solana platform, due to concerns about illicit financial promotional activities targeting consumers in the UK. This move occurred on December 16, marking the increasing interest of regulators in unlicensed cryptocurrency projects.
The FCA stated that Retardio may be offering or promoting financial services without the necessary permissions. It is estimated that the project has generated $31 million in revenue from NFTs and has a related memecoin market capitalization of approximately $87 million, with each token priced around $0.08. This poses significant risks to UK investors, who may be lured by the impressive growth.
The FCA emphasizes that users in the UK participating in the Retardio project will not be protected by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FOS is an agency that resolves disputes between consumers and financial companies, while the FSCS provides compensation to consumers if a financial company goes bankrupt. The lack of this protection means that investors could potentially lose all their capital if the project encounters issues.
The importance of regulatory compliance
The FCA urges consumers to only deal with licensed companies, as these companies comply with strict regulations that help protect investors' rights. The agency recommends checking the FCA's register to verify the legal status of a company before investing. Reporting unlicensed companies through official channels is also encouraged to prevent illegal activities and protect the investing community.
The response of the Retardio project to the FCA's warning was quite surprising, as they claimed to have issued a warning to the UK financial regulator. The reaction indicates a lack of seriousness and may increase concerns among regulatory bodies.
At the same time, Animoca Brands Chairman, Mr. Yat Siu, has a different perspective on memecoins. He believes that memecoins reflect the value of user attention, an aspect that traditional social media metrics have not clearly represented. According to him, the market capitalization of memecoins reflects the level of interest they attract, and user-generated content (UGC) culture has been integrated into memecoins in the Web3 space.
