A controversial Malaysian socialite, known for her excesses and recent wrangles with the tax authorities in the country – is launching her own cryptocurrency called Lavida Coin.
Datuk Seri Vida – her real name is Datuk Seri Dr Hasmida Othman – said she came up with the idea after gaining a healthy profit from her investments in cryptocurrencies two years ago.
Said to be a from rags to riches story Malaysian-style, the Cosmetics queen said she expected the value of the Lavida Coin to increase by the end of the year.
After her success with cryptocurrency, she then decided to create the Lavida Coin with services from a professional team, she said.
Datuk Vida, who runs the popular Vida Beauty business said she is not starting Lavida Coin to cheat or involve in ‘haram’ money.
Malaysia has not decided whether it will declare Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies ‘haram’ or ‘halal’, but Vida said this was one way she intends to help Malaysians in need.
She has plans to raise RM1.5 billion from the cryptocurrency while some experts in the field are saying she will fail in her endeavour.
One David Low, country manager at Luno, said this attempt by Vida will go down as one of the worst ICO projects in Malaysia.
Low said he is calling people out not to invest in what he called a ‘dubious’ enterprise.
He said Vida’s project is a security token clouded as a utility token which he says is ‘deceptive’.
Vida organised a soft launch of the Lavida Coin in Kuala Lumpur. See the video below:
Vida made the headlines and a big buzz in Malaysia’s social media circle with a song entitled ‘I am Me’ which was a curtain raiser in her search for a love partner. The video has 12,200,906 views on youtube.