Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee Sells Stake Citing 'Conflict of Interest'

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee announced on Reddit today that he had divested most of his litecoins, which are an alternative to Bitcoin. He cited “a conflict of interest” for him to continue buying and selling Litecoin while tweeting about it because he has “so much influence.” Lee says he sold and donated all his litecoins, which makes it the first time in six years that he doesn’t own a single litecoin that’s not stored in a physical coin. He did not share the exact amount sold but said that he would continue to work on Litecoin and when the currency succeeded, he would “still be rewarded in lots of different ways, just not directly via ownership of coins.”

It’s uncommon for a founder of a major cryptocurrency to publicly divest themselves from their holdings. Satoshi, the founder of Bitcoin, remains obscured from the public eye, while Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, still owns a lot of ether and stays active on social media.

Many on Reddit doubted Lee’s intentions for divesting. One user wrote that he had lost faith in Litecoin after Lee’s divestment, saying, “Typically in finance, a founder selling out his stake is a very BAD indicator for his perception of future performance.” Some even hypothesized that Lee pulled out of Litecoin in order to invest more in Bitcoin Cash, and accused him of insider trading. Lee responded to such accusations with a tweet and an update to his Reddit statement, strongly denying that he had any involvement with the Coinbase Bitcoin Cash insider trading allegations. “Don’t worry. I’m not quitting Litecoin,” he wrote, then later added, “As you can see, some people even think I’m pumping Bcash [Bitcoin Cash] for my personal benefit. It seems like I just can’t win.”

One litecoin is currently worth $325.13, which is not a significant change from before Lee’s announcement yesterday. We’ve reached out to Lee for comment and will update this story if we hear back.