Benzinga - Ending its 8-year tenure in the cryptocurrency industry, Blockchain company, LBRY typed its final message in a statement on Odysee, LBRY-powered video-sharing website. The message was also shared on X:
LBRY Inc. is winding down.LBRY highlights its huge pile of debt to the SEC, its legal team, and a private debtor as its reason for closing down. Originally, the SEC pursued a punishment of $22 million, but then revised it down to $111,000 as it noticed that the troubled company would not be able to pay, Cointelegraph reported.The LBRY network is unaffected.
Odysee and other assets will undergo a legal process to satisfy debts, but Odysee has a bright future ahead.
Thank you to everyone who fought with us for online freedom.
A final goodbye post is in the first reply.
— LBRY (@LBRYcom) October 19, 2023
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The LBRY team expressed thank you to all those who fought with them for their online freedom. It added, “LBRY Inc. must die, there is no escaping this. It has lost a judgment to the federal government, has several million dollars in debts, and has pledged to shut down.”
“It wasn’t a happy ending, but it was a happy journey,” said CEO Jeremy Kauffman. LBRY executives, employees, and board members have resigned and are now only engaged in satisfying any outstanding legal requirements.
Many community supporters came out and spoke positively about LBRY terming it as one of the most useful blockchain-based platforms on the market.
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While LBRY’s blockchain is open-sourced and decentralized, it will continue to operate so long as blocks continue to be mined, the Odysee team noted. Odysee served 5.3 million unique users monthly between January and April 2023 which is higher than any other decentralized social media platform in the market, according to data cited by Cointelegraph.
LBRY History
In March 2021, the SEC first sued LBRY claiming that its LBRY Credit token (LBC) was sold as a security under the 1933 Securities Act. The company had first announced its intention to wind down in July 2023 after it lost a judgment to the SEC.
In September 2023, the company considered picking up the fight against the SEC as it felt the decision taken earlier was unjust and incorrect. The appeal had come amid several high-profile crypto industry victories, like Ripple and Grayscale, against the federal regulator.
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