Basis
It shut down before launch and handed the money back to investors
A planned algorithmic stablecoin, first called Basecoin, meant to hold a $1 peg by expanding and contracting its own supply with the help of separate bond and share tokens, developed by Intangible Labs of Hoboken, New Jersey.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basecoin presale (2017) | 2017 | ||
| Private placement (April 2018) | 2018 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nader Al-Naji | Jun 2017 – Dec 2018 | Founder of DeSo; leads the DeSo Foundation | Oct 2026 | |
| Lawrence Diao | Unknown – Dec 2018 | Investor, @dragonfly_cap | Oct 2026 | |
| Josh Chen | Unknown – Dec 2018 | Built Instant Expert with a partner, a service for paying people for a confirmed call or reply | Oct 2026 |
Promises vs reality
Target
The project was shut down about fourteen months later without launching.
A missed promise is a missed promise. It is not evidence of fraud, and this page does not treat it as any.
Timeline
June 2017
Nader Al-Naji described a stablecoin that would shrink and grow its supply on a blockchain; he left Google the same month to start the company.
13 October 2017
Investors bought units of Intangible Labs entitling them to the future coin.
18 April 2018
12 December 2018
13 December 2018
How it ended
Intangible Labs said that having to apply US securities regulation to the system had made launching Basis unworkable: its lawyers had concluded that the bond and share tokens could not avoid being securities, which would have meant transfer restrictions and a centralized whitelist indefinitely. It said it had considered alternatives, including launching offshore, and chose instead to return capital to investors and shut the project down. According to an investor quoted by The Block, most of the money had been held under contract in the form it was paid in, mainly cash, until launch, so nearly all of it could be returned.
Still alive
Open spot
Basis is gone. Is your stablecoin still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
16 sources behind this page.
- 1Nader Al-Naji (Formerly Known as 'Diamondhands') Unveils Long-Term Plan for BitClout Blockchain · CoinDesk · Sep 2021
- 2Basis Raises $133M To Create Price-Stable Cryptocurrency · Crunchbase News · Apr 2018
- 3DeSo homepage, 'Meet the DeSo team' section · DeSo
- 4'Basis' Stablecoin Calls it Quits, Returns Funds to Investors · Finance Magnates
- 5Cryptocurrency Project Basis Is Shutting Down. Here's What Its Lead Investor Has to Say · Fortune · Dec 2018
- 6Bain Capital and Andreessen Horowitz Confirm Investment in New Cryptocurrency Basecoin · Fortune (Reuters report) · Oct 2017
- 7Cryptocurrency project Basis to shut down and return funding to investors · Reuters (syndicated by Yahoo Finance) · Dec 2018
- 8Princeton graduates' crypto-currency wins backing of big U.S. investors · Reuters (syndicated by Yahoo Finance) · Oct 2017
- 9This 26-year old founder who left Google to launch a stable cryptocurrency startup, Basis, just raised $133 million in funding · Tech Startups · Apr 2018
- 10Stablecoin project Basis is shutting down and returning nearly all capital raised to investors · The Block · Dec 2018
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- 11Lawrence Diao (Dragonfly Capital Partners) investor profile · VC Sheet · user-editable
- 12@jwaynechen profile · X, retrieved via twitterapi.io
- 13@jwaynechen recent posts, including the 24 June 2026 post on Instant Expert · X, retrieved via twitterapi.io · Jun 2026
- 14Posts naming @lzdiao, 2017 to 2018, including Underscore VC's 14 May 2018 post on its Basis investment · X, retrieved via twitterapi.io · May 2018
- 15X user search for "Lawrence Diao", including the @lzdiao profile · X, retrieved via twitterapi.io
- 16Price-Stable Cryptocurrency Project 'Basis' Raises $133 Million in Funding · Yahoo Finance · Apr 2018
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.