Bookies a better bet than Mone currency project, claims MP

A cryptocurrency project launched by businesswoman Baroness Mone has been criticised by a Treasury Select Committee MP who has claimed that betting on horses would be more profitable.

Glasgow-born Baroness Mone announced last month that she and her partner Doug Barrowman were launching the “Equi” venture with hopes to raise a total of more than £50 million through an “initial coin offering” (ICO).

The scheme will see a percentage of the cryptocurrency sold to early backers of the project – with the money funding a new investment platform called Equi Capital, which will not offer investors any input into how their cash is used or any investments made with it.

There is also no guarantee that the coins will be tradable on other exchanges, a facility without which they would be effectively worthless.

Mone, 46, has big hopes for her currency and Equi Capital and is appealing for “people power” to invest in “the next potential Snapchat or Facebook”.

In a promotional video on YouTube for Equi, Mone urges people to sign up to her new venture. “It will be explosive,” she promises.

But the venture was dismissed by John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a member of the Commons’ Treasury select committee, who said: “You would be better going off to the bookies than investing in this scheme.”

The Equi coin will be launched to the public on March 15, but started its pre-sale last Thursday, for which a minimum investment of £72,400 required.

The scheme is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is and it is not being sold to US investors.

Under the scheme, consumers can buy the digital coins for 36p each; these can then — in theory — be sold on digital currency exchanges and the proceeds invested in Equi’s venture capital projects. There will be an initial supply of 250m tokens.

Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney called for stricter regulation of digital currencies, warning they were “reliant in part on finding the greater fool” and “exhibited the classic hallmarks of a bubble”.

The FCA said it could not comment on whether specific funds complied with its rules, but has warned consumers about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, which it says are unregulated, highrisk and speculative investments.