This issue is now resolved with the launch of MCO Visa card by Monaco. While the parent company, Monaco is rechristened to Crypto.com, the Monaco card has been rebranded to MCO.
Monaco, or now Crypto.com, offers a wallet app as well as Visa payment cards. Furthermore, the company has issued an updated whitepaper to review achievements so far, underlining its strategy, vision, product pipeline and other planned services. The domain Crypto.com was previously owned by Matt Blaze,a professor of computer and information technology sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Back in 1993, Blaze registered the domain name on the basis of his interest in cryptography. He is now the director of the Tor project.
As cryptocurrency industry gained prominence, users often started referring the tokens of blockchain networks as “crypto” – an abbreviation for cryptocurrency. Several other companies had expressed their interest in the domain name. Domain sales experts have pegged the worth of Crypto.com upwards of $10 million, giving an astronomical gain to Blaze.
Today, Monaco rebrands as https://t.co/GoeR0HZFDF to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. Our consumer facing products, including card and wallet app have rebranded as MCO – https://t.co/NVhPq0446s
Monaco is now https://t.co/GoeR0HZFDF! pic.twitter.com/5Tcfoz5jlC— MCO Crypto (@MCO_Crypto) July 6, 2018
Even though several companies had expressed their interest to acquire the domain name, Blaze never responded positively to the offers. Blaze is believed to be a cryptocurrency skeptic. So, obviously, he did not entertain enquiries from the cryptocurrency industry. In early January, he tweeted his displeasure over people contacting him to acquire the domain name.
For anyone else trying to contact me for this reason, don’t bother. Not for sale. https://t.co/S8yKT4J5IF
— matt blaze (@mattblaze) January 5, 2018
The exact sale price is unknown. It may or may not be more than $10 million as Blaze had told some time back in an interview to TechCrunch that “if it was only about money he’d have sold it a long time ago.”
The company has also starting revamping its website to reflect the name change. Crypto.com also acts as the gateway to the tinkered website mco.crypto.com, which contains details about MCO product range. Hong Kong-based Monaco was established in 2017. The company successfully raised $27 million through its MCO token offering. Monaco’s CEO Kris Marszalek, a serial tech entrepeneur, clarified that the sale of token is not primarily aimed at rebrand, but to provide a flurry of new products and services.
“This is a very powerful identity that we are taking on. It’s representative of the entire category so it comes with a huge responsibility on us to carry the torch. We don’t take it lightly and this is one of the things that I think we conveyed successfully, that, as a company, we do have a higher purpose.”
The successful acquisition of the domain name will assist the company in moving forward with its plans of expanding in the crypto space. Marszalek further said
“Fundamentally, blockchain and crypto will enable [the next generation] to control their money, to control their data and to control their identity, these are the three fundamental things that weave the fabric of society. For us this is the purpose, we want to accelerate the world’s adoption of cryptocurrency.”
The company has already received the first batch of MCO Visa cards and the team is currently testing it across the globe.
We are excited to share that we have received the first batch of operational Monaco Visa cards and the team is currently testing the cards globally! Check out the video – https://t.co/pQMOqqMACe
Stay tuned for more updates!— MCO Crypto (@MCO_Crypto) July 4, 2018