TenX

TenX was a Singapore-based fintech company that aimed to make cryptocurrency spendable in everyday life through a combination of a mobile wallet and a Visa debit card. Founded in 2014 and led by Julian Hosp and Toby Hoenisch, the company raised approximately $80 million USD in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO), one of the largest of that year. The accompanying PAY token was sold to fund development and grant holders a share of transaction fee revenue.

The core product was the TenX Wallet app paired with the TenX Visa Card, which was designed to let users spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin at any point-of-sale terminal that accepted Visa. The wallet supported self-custody of funds and offered two-factor authentication for account security. At its peak, TenX claimed acceptance at tens of millions of merchant locations worldwide.

The card program suffered two major disruptions. In early 2018, Visa terminated its relationship with WaveCrest Holdings, the card issuer TenX relied on, abruptly shutting down cards for customers across Europe. TenX worked to find a replacement issuer but faced prolonged delays in restoring service. A second blow came in 2020 when Wirecard, which had become the new issuing partner, collapsed into insolvency following a massive accounting fraud, again suspending TenX card functionality.

The combined effect of the card setbacks, a sharp decline in the value of the PAY token from its 2017 highs, and broader market conditions led to a significant contraction of TenX operations. The wallet and card services were discontinued around 2021, and the company wound down. The tenx.tech website is no longer active. Side projects including the COMIT Network cross-chain protocol and the CoBloX blockchain research lab were eventually spun off or discontinued independently of the main product.