The founding father of Malaysian funding big Nation Heights Holdings is stepping down from his place to deal with issuing a cryptocurrency.

In response to a Sept. 28 article in information outlet The Edge Markets, billionaire Lee Kim Yew — also referred to as Lee Kim Tiong — will no longer be the manager chairman of Nation Heights as of Jan 2021. 

“I’m handing over the public-listed firm’s enterprise to the brand new administrators and I’ll focus on cryptocurrencies,” stated Lee.

The 65-year-old announced in 2018 that Nation Heights could be pursuing the event of an preliminary coin providing, or ICO, for the agency’s personal cryptocurrency, reportedly referred to as “Horse Foreign money.” 

Although the funding agency’s shareholders initially authorized the ICO plan at a gathering in 2018, Lee’s determination to step down is at the moment one of many few choices obtainable that may permit him to legally pursue an ICO. In January, the nation’s monetary watchdog, the Securities Fee Malaysia, said that ICOs have to be issued solely via authorized crypto exchanges, not publicly traded firms.

Below these regulatory tips, one among Lee’s non-public corporations — as soon as licensed — can take management of the Nation Heights undertaking as an alternative, issuing tokens whereas the funding agency can nonetheless legally settle for them. He claims to have “obtained all of the approvals” vital for one among his funding corporations to proceed and plans to launch Horse Foreign money by the top of the yr.

“My funding banks are in operation and a white paper can be issued,” stated the Nation Heights exec.

If profitable, Lee’s ICO enterprise would make Nation Heights one of many first publicly listed firms on Malaysia’s inventory trade to simply accept crypto funds. 

Earlier than the regulatory change, preliminary stories of the ICO said Lee deliberate to problem one billion tokens. The agency’s subsidiaries, together with a luxurious resort referred to as Palace of the Golden Horses and the Golden Horses Well being Sanctuary — purportedly the place the crypto asset will get its identify — would settle for the tokens for services and products. Nonetheless, the exec stated he would proceed to pursue different facets of the crypto area, together with safety token choices.

Lee, who has served as government chairman on the funding agency since 2016, is Nation Heights’ largest shareholder, proudly owning greater than 27% of the corporate’s 275 million shares.

The agency at the moment has a market capitalization of roughly $72 million.