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Launching a cryptocurrency company in America has never been for the faint of heart.
But for Unicoin Inc., a firm priding itself on being the most compliant, transparent, and institution-ready player in the industry, the journey has been less about innovation and more about survival.
A Poster Child Turned Target
Founded in 2022 by entrepreneurs Alex Konanykhin and Silvina Moschini, Unicoin was conceived as a made-in-America alternative to Bitcoin: fully audited, publicly reporting, and designed to meet institutional standards.
While many crypto ventures skirted U.S. securities laws, Unicoin went the opposite route, pouring over $10 million into compliance, submitting to exhaustive SEC reviews, and passing two federal investigations without a single violation.
By all logic, Unicoin should have been the SEC’s poster child, a proof-point that crypto could coexist with regulation. Instead, it became the final casualty of Gary Gensler's "War on Crypto."
The Assault
In spring 2024, just as Unicoin prepared to go public, the SEC launched an aggressive campaign of subpoenas, reaching into the company’s bankers, auditors, consultants, even its vendors.
According to company insiders, staffers at the commission explicitly ordered Unicoin to cancel its ICO, withdraw its IPO plans, and stop all crypto activities in the United States.
Powerless against the Biden administration's anti-crypto stance, Unicoin relocated operations abroad that July.
But when Donald Trump's election victory rekindled hopes of a crypto-friendly America, Unicoin notified the SEC of its intention to return.
The response was swift: a Wells Notice accusing the company of conducting an "airdrop," a common and, until then, lawful marketing practice.
The Last Case Filed
In December 2024, Unicoin became the last crypto company formally targeted by Gensler’s SEC.
For a company that had raised $90 million in cash and secured over $3 billion in real-estate-for-crypto swap agreements, the timing was devastating
Pre-listing valuations had reached $18 billion, and a successful NYSE debut could have made Unicoin the first publicly traded cryptocurrency company in U.S. history.
Instead, the firm now finds itself fighting for survival, and for the shareholder value of thousands of American investors — against charges it describes as legally baseless.
A former federal prosecutor analyzing the case called the SEC's reliance on "airdrop" allegations "bizarre," suggesting that the Commission had exhausted credible claims.
A Larger Battle
For Konanykhin and Moschini, the stakes extend beyond their company.
"We welcome rigorous scrutiny," Konanykhin told me.
"Every time the SEC has investigated us, they've found full compliance. This is not about protecting investors. It's about preventing the success of a model that would expose the failures of Gensler’s war on crypto."
Indeed, Unicoin’s trajectory challenges the common stereotypes of the industry.
This isn't a story of shadowy exchanges or opaque offshore entities, but of a company that attempted to build a U.S.-based, institutional-grade cryptocurrency under the watchful eye of regulators.
Now, with President Trump and Vice President Vance pledging to end the war on crypto and fire its saboteurs, Unicoin's struggle has become emblematic of a broader fight: whether America will lead the digital asset revolution, or continue to sabotage it from within.
For Unicoin, the outcome may determine whether it becomes a historic first, America's answer to Bitcoin, or a cautionary tale of how innovation can be smothered by regulation.
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues. Read Duggan Flanakin's reports — More Here.