Investors Count Losses: Binance IEO Perlin (PERL) Postpones Mainnet Launch Indefinitely

After multiple delays, Perlin, a blockchain-based project that raised at least $ 6.7 million on Binance Launchpad in 2019, announced today that it has postponed the deployment of its blockchain indefinitely, and will instead build its partner applications on the Ethereum network.

The news which appears to have completely shattered retail investor trust in the project was revealed in two separate updates from the Perlin team and lead developer, Kenta Iwasaki, who also confirmed that he would be stepping away from Perlin on sabbatical leave.

Perlin had raised millions from investors, citing notable partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and other organizations via a strategic partnership with the Singaporean government to champion to development of enterprise blockchain-based solutions for international trade.

The project also counts Kakao Investments, Arrington XRP Capital, FBG Capital, and Bitmain among its pool of investors.

What Went Wrong with Perlin’s Wavelet Development?

According to the update from the team, development of Perlin’s planned mainnet dubbed “Wavelet” was going right on track with the team successfully deploying the first stabilized version in August 2019 during the same period its Binance IEO.

Buoyed by that progress, the project’s business development team swung into full action to bring the project into further mainstream consciousness. However,  the development and release of Wavelet were delayed by a “couple of key technical challenges” observed during testing in December 2019.

Lead developer, Kenta Iwasaki admits advising the business team immediately that there was a need to double down on efforts from the tech team to make the public release in Q1 2020 earlier announced to investors and partners viable.

Sadly, despite several approaches and ‘investing heavily’ towards fixing the said “technical challenges,” a solution was not in sight, forcing the team to “indefinitely postpone the public release,” today.

What’s the Way Forward for Perlin?

While investors are once again left scratching their heads for losing funds on another seemingly failed project, Perlin sought to reiterate its commitment to adding real utility for token holders and the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Citing a more competitive setting for multiple blockchain projects almost working towards the same proposition, and the growing “infighting between ecosystems,” Perlin’s Head of Communications, Darren Toh said they would not like to add to the competition in what would ultimately end up as a counter-productive move.

Instead, Perlin will now focus on growing crypto and the less saturated decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The team will also maintain its influence in the trade sector via products like the ICC TradeFlow that it launched earlier.

Perlin also mentioned that it would primarily get involved in the world’s rapidly growing carbon commodity markets, with more focus on connecting carbon platforms to digital platforms and other DeFi products.

Investors React

The new roadmap released by Perlin wasn’t what investors signed up for, a fact evidenced by the token’s value dumping massively in the earlier hours of today, before a slight recovery.

Investors also expressed their dissent on the project’s Telegram discussion channel, while others argued that insiders dumped the token before the news was available.

Meanwhile, a majority has expressed unwillingness to take the new curve with Perlin, marking a sad ending, and perhaps a new beginning for a project which many investors had hoped would be successful because it was backed heavily.