The Controversy Surrounding Bitcoin Latinum (LTNM)

Bitcoin has seen its fair share of forks over the years. Developers have disagreements and create their own coin – Bitcoin Cash is the most notable fork and the one that has seen the most success. 

One Bitcoin fork, if you can even call it that, is Bitcoin Latinum. This project has caused quite a bit of controversy and the founder is currently facing an SEC lawsuit for securities fraud, but it generated a lot of attention and was listed on dozens of centralized exchanges (including Binance) at one point. So, what happened to Bitcoin Latinum? Was this project a scam? Is it a good investment?

This article will answer all those questions and more. 

What is Bitcoin Latinum?

Bitcoin Latinum was launched in mid-2021 as a fork of Bitcoin. It’s a Palo Alto, California based cryptocurrency founded by tech entrepreneur Don Basile with a professional poker player named Kevin Jonna serving as an executive. Jonna, and Bitcoin Latinum by extension, are currently in a lawsuit alleging securities fraud and misappropriation of funds. 

Basically, the lawsuit alleges that the three plaintiffs paid for Bitcoin Latinum tokens and did not receive any tokens. Jonna is also not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC), so he should not be selling securities.

The actual mechanics of Bitcoin Latinum are really nothing too exciting – it’s a proof of stake coin. The whitepaper hypes this up like it is some sort of breakthrough in technology, but it’s really nothing special. There are plenty of proof of stake blockchains out there and they do not solve the blockchain trilemma. 

For those unaware, the blockchain trilemma is a phrase coined by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. It refers to the fact that making a blockchain be decentralized, fast,and secure is extremely difficult. All the major blockchains have two of the three, but none have all three. 

Bitcoin Latinum does not appear to be doing anything groundbreaking with their proof of stake algorithm. The project does not even have a yellow paper, which is unusual for a project like this. The docs section of the website lists a whitepaper, an investor analysis, and investor overview. 

It appears that they are interested in drawing investors into the project more than explaining the technical details with a yellow paper. 

The Issues We Have With Bitcoin Latinum

We have some issues with Bitcoin Latinum. Some of these issues are major issues while others are relatively minor. However, the totality of the issues does not paint a very good picture for the project.

Poker Sponsorships

The first issue we have with Bitcoin Latinum is their marketing strategy of sponsoring poker players. Phil Hellmuth is their most well-known spokesman and he’s also an angel investor in the project. 

We cannot think of another serious cryptocurrency (ie. not Dogecoin or other memecoins) that have had sponsorship deals. 

This is not a good look for a project that is attempting to be serious. If the project is the next generation of cryptocurrency, then why do they need to sponsor a poker player? 

The technological brilliance of the project should shine through and cause it to rise to the top of the cryptocurrency rankings. 

It’s just not a good look to have a sponsorship.

Shallow Whitepaper

Our other concern is that the whitepaper is devoid of any serious technical details. It more or less just repeats that Bitcoin Latinum is proof of stake. 

Proof of stake is fine, but Ethereum is now proof of stake and so are plenty of other blockchains. What makes Bitcoin Latinum different from these other blockchains? 

Foundation Website is Horrible

Bitcoin Latinum has a foundation – Monsoon Blockchain Corporation. The website for the foundation has literally no information on it. It’s just a picture with the text “Digitizing Modern Business Assets with Blockchain Technology” overlaid on it. 

That’s a horrible website for a foundation. 

No information about the founders or about any projects that “Monsoon Blockchain Corporation” is working on in relation to digitizing business assets. 

Why is Bitcoin Latinum Well Known?

Bitcoin Latinum has received quite a bit of media attention over the past year. This stems almost entirely from their marketing department – they have a great marketing department.

It’s certainly not because of the technical aspects of the project.

Specifically, the project has professional poker player Phil Hellmuth as a sponsor. Hellmuth wore a Bitcoin Latinum hat at most poker events in 2021 and tweeted about the project quite a bit, which resulted in quite a lot of publicity for the company. Fellow poker player Brandon Cantu also sported Bitcoin Latinum merch in 2021. 

Hellmuth also had a Twitter feud with fellow poker player Doug Polk about Hellmuth’s relationship with Bitcoin Latinum. This feud sent shockwaves around the poker world as Hellmuth and Polk are two well-known, influential poker players. 

Is Bitcoin Latinum a Good Investment?

We will avoid giving out financial advice, but we will say that we would not invest in a project when an executive is in the middle of a fraud lawsuit. Even without the legal issues, we just don’t like the project that much – it’s not actually doing anything innovative. 

It really just looks like a project aimed at people with a limited understanding of cryptocurrency. The whitepaper is written in a very non-technical way and there is no yellow paper that explains the more technical details of the project. 

The price of the cryptocurrency has also completely collapsed – it’s down over 99% from its all-time high. Here’s a look at the price chart for reference:

That’s a massive spike in price at launch followed by a steady decrease towards zero. It’s unlikely that the price will ever come anywhere close to the all-time high.

Final Thoughts

That covers everything you need to know about Bitcoin Latinum. It’s a project that is driven almost entirely on marketing. It’s also somewhat controversial and is not really a project that you should consider as an investment.