Cuprum, the Latin word for copper, is the name given to a new cryptocurrency that has promised much yet, so far, has delivered very little.
Cuprum’s developers believe that a cryptocurrency backed by a physical asset, ultra-fine copper powder, could offer a more stable alternative to Bitcoin and other volatile cryptocurrencies.
According to their Roadmap, the Cuprum Coin project was first conceived in early 2021. And, after some delays, by 11th October 2021, the coin had its pre-sale launch. 1st Jan 2022 was the date originally promised for its listing on exchanges, or immediately following the IEO.
However, the team behind Cuprum quickly changed their tune. They announced that whilst they had signed contracts to list Cuprum Coin on 3 different exchanges (the names of which they were not able to disclose) the official launch date would be postponed “since the integration job will be a little more complicated than we thought.”
Cuprum went on to make several further similar announcements over the ensuing months. Each time explaining how the minor, ongoing delays they were experiencing were preventing them from getting the coin to its launch date. Cuprum CEO, Mario Urlić, even took to the project’s official press platform to blame his development team who he said was “was not up to this great project and task.”
This led to a lot of anger and frustration from members of the cryptocurrency community who had bought into the project, many of whom felt they had been misled and cheated.
To smooth things over, Cuprum “rewarded” pre-sale buyers’ with 10% more CUC on several occasions, with a promise that “the quantity sold in pre-sale and the fact that the starting price of CUC in the market will be 25.00 US dollars, our total reward is worth min. 400,000 USD.”
The present state of play
As it stands today, Cuprum has still not launched and continues to make promises that the delays will soon come to an end. The last promised date for the coin’s listing was given as 30 days from 19 June, give or take a week.
Even though the coin is currently not trading on any public exchanges and its price is unknown, CEO Mario Urlić claims the day will soon come when everyone invested makes a profit. Indeed, he stipulates that the profit each investor makes will be entirely up to them. Which is a weird thing to say given his admission that he works day and night “adjusting everything to make CUC as valuable as possible before launching into the market.”
Urlić is also quick to point out to CUC investors that, despite all the attempts at fraud, criticism and speculation he will not back down and that “I know what is best for you.” He cites his service in the Bosnian war on the front lines of defence as the reason for his grit and determination in seeing CUC through to its launch date, despite the problems with integration and his development team.
The cause of the problem
Cuprum keeps coming back to the fact that getting listed is especially difficult for their crypto coin because they are using ultra-fine copper powder to back it. This, they say, is an unprecedented move which has presented several integration challenges.
Rather than letting their problems get the better of them, Cuprum is determined to push on, it seems, and become one of the “Top 10 cryptocurrencies on the market.”
Good news for Cuprum?
With claims that they are not like some “crappy meme token”, the team behind the project cites their backing by ultra-fine copper powder as the reason they will succeed where others have failed. They go on to describe how this unique physical asset gives Cuprum Coin a real value that cannot be found elsewhere in the cryptocurrency world.
The Cuprum website lists the value of their copper backing at $60 billion, or $3,000 USD per gram. Furthermore, the claim is also made that the expenses for keeping the copper reserve “in accordance with the guidelines of our security advisers” is $22,000 Euro per month.
In good news for investors, the formerly unnamed listing partners have now been declared as: DexTrade, Bitforex, Latoken, Alterdice and Whitebit.
Despite not yet launching, the team at Cuprum continue to assure investors that they are indeed “a real coin, built on Tezos.” They also outline how CUC enjoys being autonomous, whilst having extremely low energy consumption. Plus, they are a low fee, high speed coin. Not to mention their backing by one of the most valuable elements in the world.
So, what are people’s problems then?
The main issues that people have with Cuprum are down to a lack of communication and the ever-changing launch date. The team behind the project seems insistent that everything is on track for a successful launch, despite not providing any clear evidence for these claims.
Many in the crypto community are also skeptical of the coin since online posts about the project all seem to be copy-pasted from the Cuprum website. Additionally, the Cuprum website is replete with grammatical errors. Whilst the project is headed up by someone presumably with English as a learned dialect, the fact that the website is littered with mistakes does not inspire confidence.
The team behind Cuprum also seem to have very little social media presence, which is another concern given the size of their project. Then there is the fact that none of the people involved in the project seem to have much expertise in cryptocurrency
Another major red flag for a lot of people is the question of the coin’s backing.
Some believe that the $3,000 per gram price tag is far too high and could be indicative of some sort of fraud. This is yet to be proven, however, as the coin has not launched, and no value has been assigned to it yet.
That aside, there are also some questions raised by the publication of the Safekeeping Receipts on the company’s website, which are supposed to prove the existence of the copper reserves. These receipts show a total combined value of $60 billion held in reserve. However, what they don’t show is who exactly owns the copper, thanks to redaction of sensitive information contained in the documents for “security measures.”
There is also the fact that one of the receipts was issued in September 2020, several months before CUC was purportedly conceived.
Cuprum has also been accused of being a “pump and dump” scheme, with some alleging that the team is looking to cash in on the hype around their project and then abandon it, leaving investors high and dry.
So far, there has been no concrete evidence to back up these claims and they remain purely speculative at this stage.
However, until the team behind Cuprum provides some more concrete information about their project, it is likely that these rumours will continue to circulate.
Whilst the concerns about CUC are all valid, it is worth noting that the project has not yet launched and so none of these claims can be definitively proven. The Cuprum team seems confident in their product and is determined to get the coin launched as soon as possible, despite the challenges they have faced so far.
Cuprum also appears to have several listing partners, which is encouraging. However, it is not clear how these partnerships will benefit the project or what role they will play once the coin launches.
One thing is for sure, it will be interesting to see how this project develops over the coming months and whether it can live up to the hype.
The future?
It’s hard to say what the future holds for Cuprum. The project has been plagued by delays, concerns, and speculation. However, the team behind the coin seems determined to get it launched and is confident in its potential.
As always, it is important to #DYOR and not simply get sucked in by the hype, no matter how promising a project sounds.
There are plenty of sound investments out there if you know where to look. So, there is no need to take a lot of risk with your investment.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a guaranteed investment, but by doing your research and being careful with your choices, you can minimize the risk of losing your hard-earned cash.
We will be sure to keep you updated on any new developments with the CUC project as they emerge.