If an investor have been to learn the SEC filings of VCI World, they might discover it obscure its dangerous ties to Tether and Solana.
Amid a type of data vacuum and different government disappointments in 2025, holding shares of VCI World since their open of buying and selling on a “100 million OOB token digital-asset-treasury transaction” announcement would have earned a 31% loss in lower than 4 weeks.
Long run shareholders have carried out even worse. Anybody’s funding for the reason that begin of the yr has suffered a catastrophic, 99.9% loss.
12 months-to-date chart of VCI World. Supply: TradingView
Oobit (OOB) is a tap-to-pay app that makes use of its proprietary token in addition to stablecoins like Tether (USDT) for cellular system funds.
VCI World is a microcap Nasdaq inventory with a market capitalization within the single-digit hundreds of thousands and a float of lower than 24,000 shares.
The corporate is predicated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and apparently has an issue with CEO impersonation fraud, in line with a outstanding discover on the corporate’s homepage.
That’s only the start of its issues. On November 26, the corporate claimed to have acquired 4,174,603 further OOB tokens “from the open market,” but that disclosure shunned mentioning that it acquired the overwhelming majority of its OOB with none purchases, devoid of market forces from change listings of OOB.
Particularly, the corporate already owned 250 million OOB tokens — priced earlier than the token was buying and selling on Kraken or different main exchanges. Its 4.1 million token buy at $0.24 was merely an funding of $1 million.
The corporate characterised the tiny buy and 1.6% improve because the “initial phase of our US$50 million accumulation plan.”
Specializing in what really issues, 98.4% of the corporate’s OOB holdings have been transferred by traders who acquired 50 million shares price of VCI World inventory and pre-funded, instantly exercisable warrants.
Tether’s PIPE will get a budget worth on OOB
These 250 million tokens have been favorably priced at $0.20 — 73% decrease than their $0.73 excessive inside a 48-hour interval of that headline.
Overtly, the corporate claimed that this 250 million token switch “paid” — with no precise money transaction nor placement agent — for VCI World’s whole $50 million Personal Funding in Public Fairness (PIPE).
On the opposite aspect of that deal, Tether Funding Restricted acquired 39.8% of the PIPE shares.
Straddling each side of the deal, Tether can also be a prime investor in OOB, main its Collection A fundraise, alongside Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakavenko.
In different phrases, an entity agreeing to the pricing of the OOB tokens was the identical entity receiving the vast majority of the PIPE shares.
This complete factor depends on Kraken retaining OOB up for buying and selling
In response to Cory Klippsten, a Tether critic who has been concerned in litigation in opposition to the stablecoin large, “This structure lets an effective change of control happen without triggering a 13D.”
Klippsten characterised the dearth of VCI World’s SEC Kind 13D plus different elements “a possible material breach of SEC Rule 12b-20.”
Protos doesn’t have a view on that allegation, and solely a US securities legal professional might present recommendation concerning these varieties.
The timing, pricing, and catering of each side of the deal to associated events is definitely fascinating. Kraken and different exchanges like KCEX activated buying and selling pairs of the OOB token inside 48 hours of the November 10 VCI World deal.
In reality, a considerable portion of the deal explicitly depends on Kraken’s OOB buying and selling pair staying up and operational.
If Kraken suspends or withdraws its OOB itemizing inside six months, VCI World “shall have the right to rescind this agreement” by returning OOB and reversing the VCI World shares issued.
