Is This Show A ‘Shark Tank’ for Shitcoins?
Apparntly there’s a reality show called Unicorn Hunters that’s kind of like Shark Tank where business owners pitch to judges. And it’s not just the judges who can invest, people at home can too. Also, the show has its own “official cryptocurrency,” the Unicoin.
Produced by Craig Plestis, the same guy behind I Can See Your Voice, The Masked Singer, the show aims to pioneer in the “enrichtainment” genre which — you guessed it — combines entertainment and enrichment from invest opportunities available to viewers.
If, like us and Jim Chanos, you’ve never heard of this three-year-old show (and suddenly feel like you’re in an alternate reality), it’s because it doesn’t run on mainstream channels and platforms — it streams on UnicornHunters.com, LinkedIn Broadcast, Facebook Video, YouTube, and Vimeo.
In the show, founders of late-stage, pre-IPO businesses step in to give their pitch to the show’s judges, known as the ‘Circle of Money.’ The circle will then assess the companies’ potential as the next tech “unicorn,” a private entity valued at $1 billion or more. At the end of each episode, viewers are then invited to invest through UnicornHunters.com, with minimum investments starting at $100 for some companies, and $1,000 for others.
The Circle of Money is made up of a strange combination of rotating names, including Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, Obama administration US Treasurer Rosa Gumataotao Rios, former NSYNC member Lance Bass, Moe Vela who’s also an Obama White House staffer and former senior advisor to then Vice President Biden, and actor Christopher Diamantopoulos, whose claim to fame is that he played a billionaire in the HBO show Silicon Valley.
The show debuted in 2021 and the cryptocurrency aspect was added in 2022. “In the new episodes of Unicorn Hunters, founders who pitch the Circle of Money and obtain a yes from more than one panelist will receive Unicoins. Those who receive a commitment of investment from all the members of the Circle of Money will receive up to 10 million Unicoins,” according to a recent press release.
The founders describe Unicoin as “a next-generation coin designed to address the extreme volatility typical of early coins with little to no inherent value, which ultimately led to the market meltdown and subsequent crypto winter.”
“Our idea is to create a crypto 2.0,” founder Alex Konanykhin told Forbes in May 2022. “Something that can be understood by the market. Bitcoin is created by an anonymous person for other people seeking anonymity. It doesn’t pay interest. What if your coin was backed by venture capital investments in scaleups? That’s what we are doing.”
Although Forbes makes sure to note that scaleups — which is defined as a company with an average annualized return of at least 20% in the past three years, as opposed to pre-revenue startups — “can become worthless.”
The coin is considered a securities token by the Securities and Exchange Commission. A recent press release says that it’s backed by a diversified portfolio of assets that includes equity in high-growth companies. It also boasts that Unicoin has garnered the support of business luminaries, industry leaders, and policymakers — assuming that still means something in the post-FTX era.
The show’s still running, with its most recent episode featuring Healables, “a digital health start-up at the forefront of commercializing wearable, bioelectric, smart textiles for recovery and performance and developing AI-powered therapeutic technology designed to relieve pain, accelerate healing, and reduce inflammation without medication.”
Sounds perfectly safe, like Unicoin.
Information for this story was found via Forbes, X, Unicorn Hunters, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.