Sirin Labs Abruptly Switches from IOTA to Ethereum
Sirin Labs, best known for creating the military-grade Solarin smartphone, announced last September the launch of its first blockchain phone, FINNEY, which was originally powered by the IOTA Tangle distributed ledger technology. However, the company has now changed its mind and decided to adopt the Ethereum blockchain instead. CEO Moshe Hogeg stated unequivocally in an interview, 'We are not working with IOTA. We thought about it carefully and decided to go in a different direction.' Chief Marketing Officer Nimrod May further clarified that when FINNEY goes live, it will use the Ethereum blockchain running through a series of full nodes hosted by Sirin Labs. He explained that since the whitepaper was released, the plan has always been to migrate the SRN token and Sirin Labs ecosystem to a 'next-generation blockchain.'
May added that FINNEY would process transactions via a series of full nodes hosted by Sirin Labs, hinting that the company may use a private Ethereum chain rather than the mainnet. Notably, he revealed that 'Ethereum is not FINNEY’s final home' due to transaction cost concerns. The ultimate goal is to migrate to a blockchain built specifically for FINNEY, ensuring minimal fees for micro-payments on the device. However, developing a proprietary mainnet could take considerable time. According to May, Sirin Labs has already evaluated IOTA and Cardano and continues to search for suitable distributed ledger technology, even considering building its own long-term blockchain solution.
IOTA Price Plunges, $800 Million Market Cap Wiped Out
Following the announcement, MIOTA—the token behind IOTA's IoT-focused distributed ledger—experienced a sharp sell-off. According to CoinMarketCap, MIOTA dropped nearly 17.5% on August 7, shedding over $800 million in market capitalization since July 29, threatening its position among the top 10 cryptocurrencies. As of 2:30 PM Beijing time on August 8, MIOTA had a market cap of $1.96 billion, a 24-hour trading volume of $71.27 million, and traded at approximately $0.70, after touching a low of $0.6770. Market observers attribute the decline to heightened concerns over IOTA's technical issues following Sirin Labs' decision, which amplified selling pressure.