ICandy project left hanging after PancakeSwap token raise went sour

Esports Players League (ESPL), a Singapore-based esports tournament and platform provider, has been left hanging after a failed initial farm offering (IFO) – a type of coin sale – with PancakeSwap, a BNB Chain-based decentralized exchange (DEX).

The company spent close to half a million dollars on the campaign, most of it at the urging of the DEX, only to have the IFO canceled by the exchange. Furthermore, the 35 million Arena tokens that ESPL put up for sale in the IFO have yet to be returned to the company – that’s 3.5% of the total Arena supply.

A promotional image for the IFO / Image credit: ESPL

To add salt to the wound, ESPL is now accused of being a rug pull by crypto users who bought Arena tokens from the secondary market. While IFO participants were reimbursed by PancakeSwap for their Arena tokens, buyers from the secondary market were not.

In its announcement about scrapping the IFO, PancakeSwap also insinuated that ESPL had been selling Arena tokens that should have been locked.

Privately, the DEX accused ESPL of dumping Arena tokens, which put downward pressure on the token’s price, according to Telegram correspondence seen by Tech in Asia.

“I think it’s very important that we clarify what happened,” says Shn Juay, CMO at ASX-listed Web3 gaming company iCandy, the parent firm of ESPL. The company denies that it has dumped the tokens. “We want to do another token raise, but we have to clear up all this misunderstanding,” she adds.

Founded in 2019, ESPL currently has 300,000 registered esports athletes participating in Web2 online tournaments such as Call of Duty, Free Fire, PUBG, Clash of Clans, and Valorant.

The firm has raised US$2.6 million to date from investors including Warner Music, Genting Ventures, and Infinity Ventures Crypto.

See also: Chew on it: ASX-listed iCandy reveals Web3 gaming vision

The company sought to use funds raised from the IFO to build a new Web3 tournament platform called ESPL Arena.

PancakeSwap still holding ESPL’s money

According to ESPL, the IFO concluded smoothly on January 16. However, the broader campaign, which included a requirement for ESPL and PancakeSwap to collectively push the US$0.04 listing price of Arena tokens upwards to US$0.06, began to show signs of trouble when Arena tokens started to be traded.

Why was the IFO canceled?