In November 2017, Wabi raised $11.5 million in its ICO. The platform was going to make consumer products safe for everyone, especially children. On March 17, 2023, Binance announced that they would delist $WABI from the exchange. The price dropped 61% and went below $3 million MC. Token holders vented their anger in the Wabi Telegram group, but no one was listening.

How did this once-promising project fail? In this week's episode of crypto forensics, we share with you all that happened to Wabi. You will learn:

  • What is Wabi?

  • What went wrong?

  • Why Binance delisted $WABI

What Is The Wabi Project?

Wabi is a blockchain-based project that connects consumers and brands. It aims to create a fair and equitable relationship between these two parties by incentivizing consumers with WABI token rewards and allowing brands to generate new types of data for market research, testing, and strategic decision-making.

There were images and videos flying around showing how effective the technology is. But it was all short-lived, as there were unsettled issues to deal with.

$WABI Token ICO In 2017

2017 remains famous for the several #ICOs that were launched that year. Projects were raising millions in $ETH and $BTC, and one of such projects was Wabi. Founded by Alex Busarov, the project aimed to make consumer goods safe under the parent company, Taeltech.

There were a lot of counterfeit products (and there still are) all over the world, especially in China, which is the hub of most consumer goods. The idea was to create a system that made it possible to verify the authenticity of products, starting with baby foods and alcohol.

There was a tag on these products that customers could scan. If it's an authentic product, the customer will be notified on the mobile app They claimed that this technology was built on the blockchain and was going to revolutionize the world. But that wasn't the case.

In less than 48 hours, the Presale for $WABI was filled. Total supply was 100m. 46m tokens were sold at a price of $0.25 per token. The price peaked in June of 2018 at a price of $5.31 per $WABI Ever since then, it never clicked What went wrong?

What Went Wrong For WABI

While the very idea of making consumer goods safe was good, the underlying technology of the company had nothing to do with the blockchain. There was no adoption, and the tags were too expensive to make. It never got going. And when staking rewards was no longer worth it, the bubble burst.

On October of 2019, Alex announced via Telegram that the project was pivoting. The initial idea failed, and they would create a trading bot instead. This idea wasn't welcomed by many, and a lot of hopefuls left the community. By May 2022, $WABI was at an all time low of $0.028

A Revival For Wabi?

The project seemed forgotten by many until late 2022, when Binance added $BUSD pairs for some 2017 tokens like $VIB, $LOOM, $PROM and $SNM.

There was a lot of speculation that $WABI would get a Binance $BUSD listing too. And if that happened, the price would've pumped like the others who got listed.

But it never happened. The price still went up over 5x anyways, solely based on speculation.

All through this period, there was no communication from the team. It was as if the project was dead to them

Their last tweet and TG update came in October of 2019. To further fuel speculation of a Binance $BUSD pair listing, the Wabit team made changes to their website. Tapping into the #AI trend, they added an "AI driven trading bot" to their homepage.

"Superior results with #AI"? Buzz words. Those monitoring closely bought more $WABI in hopes of 10–100x. All through this period, there was no communication with the community members. This led many to wonder what was going on.

Binance delists $WABI Token

It all became clear when Binance announced that $WABI would be delisted from the exchange. Wabi was abandoned, and there seems to be no way back, or any interest in actually building a working product.

The price of $WABI has further dropped to $0.0012, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

Future Of Wabi Project

What next for Wabi? No one knows for sure. But it seems safe to consider the project dead. Except when a miracle happens, of course. What about Alex? His LinkedIn bio reads "previously founded Taeltech", the parent company of Wabi.

Alex has moved on, and founded a new company called Heatbit. A device meant to keep you warm while mining Bitcoin from the comfort of your home. The device costs $900-$1200. Whether it works as intended or not is debatable.

Lessons From Wabi Failure

  • Getting in on an #ICO or #IDO doesn't necessarily mean it will go well

  • If a project shows serious signs of abandonment or fraud, don't ignore the red flags

  • Be wary of projects that use buzzwords.

  • Never buy crypto based on speculation

Conclusion:

Wabi is just one of many cryptos that got delisted by Binance. However, the manner in which WABI failed and got deleted offers huge lessons for everyone.

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