Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Crypto startup DeHealth promised a metaverse for doctors and patients, while investors received the DHLT token, which plummeted by almost 100 %. The founder Hanna Bondarenko spoke initially of a “theft” by the market maker and later described the process as a “simple price drop,” while hints about the project gradually disappeared from the internet.
We are publishing this material in full to remind how the “digital future of medicine” was sold—and what has since been removed from the internet.
A new scandal is brewing in the digital asset market. Investors in the Ukrainian crypto startup are reporting financial losses from the DeHealth token (DHLT) issued by the UK-based non-profit organization of the same name.
One of the company's co-founders is the Ukrainian Hanna Bondarenko from Kropyvnytskyi. In her official biography she is described as an IT entrepreneur and a professional violinist. Together with Denys Tsvaih she co-founded DeHealth and leads the international eHealth consortium. Bondarenko is also active in fashion: she founded the designer clothing brand Palson Kifot.
In December 2021 Bondarenko announced plans to build a so-called decentralized metaverse starting in 2022. Millions of doctors and patients were to be brought into a new world where they could interact in 3D, receive necessary consultations, and share medical information. At the same time, they would earn virtual assets by selling their anonymized medical data. The DHLT token was to be the main currency in the announced metaverse.
From the outset, the project was pitched as having a grand scale: it was designed for three million users. This could hardly fail to impress potential investors.
But problems began almost immediately. On 23 February 2022, the crypto startup conducted the first placement of DHLT tokens. Within hours the tokens were sold out. A few weeks later, the project founders told investors that the money had allegedly been stolen by a market maker and that they were addressing the situation.
“Bondarenko told me that the market maker had pulled liquidity from the exchange. So allegedly the money was stolen. And that lawyers and the cyber police were taking care of it,” said one of the foreign investors.
But afterwards, according to him, the portrayal fundamentally changed.
“After some time Bondarenko stopped mentioning that someone had stolen the money, and said instead that the token price had simply fallen sharply and there was nothing one could do about it—that’s just how prices are. The price fell tenfold. If I now withdraw my money, I get ten times less than at the time of my investment. And most interestingly, no one mentions a thief-market maker anymore. We now understand that the story of the theft was probably invented to reassure investors so they would not withdraw their money immediately. And recently they respond to all questions by saying they are now working with the Ministry of Defense and have no time for trifles,” said the investor.
What is certain is that investors with the DHLT tokens suffered significant losses. When a DHLT token was worth 2022 hryvnias in mid-September, its price fell by 1,2 to 15 2023 to 2 kopecks (0,02 hryvnias)—a drop of 98,1 %. If this trend continues, the token could soon be virtually worthless.
Even the token’s daily trading volume on the exchange was 531.000 US dollars in April this year. It has since fallen elevenfold to 48.500 US dollars.
“The asset’s market capitalization is not zero, but it is close. I think there are many who want to sell it. I myself am trying to stay away from such instruments,” says financial analyst Andriy Shevchyshyn.
The DHLT placement last year took place on the PancakeSwap platform. The project’s officials proudly stated at the time that all tokens had been sold in less than two hours. The token is currently listed on BitMart.
The operators of PancakeSwap themselves are not necessarily acting fraudulently. Since they do not verify or control the token issuers, they can theoretically be used for fraudulent activities. There are many corresponding evaluations in specialized forums.
“Fraudsters often create coins with the same name as well-known and promising coins and show how their price rises,” says one PancakeSwap review in a crypto forum.
On PancakeSwap there is, however, a corresponding warning: “Anyone on BSC can create a BEP20 token with any name, including fake versions of existing tokens or tokens that allegedly represent projects that have no token at all. If you buy an arbitrary token, you may not be able to sell it again.”
Such a warning was published specifically so that the exchange could point to having nothing to do with it in case of fraud by the token issuer.
However, the investors have not asked the exchange questions, but rather those who brought the DHLT token to the market.
“In the near future I plan to file a lawsuit against them and initiate criminal proceedings for theft and fraud. I see no other way,” said one of the foreign investors.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Nach dem Absturz des medizinischen DeHealth-Tokens versucht Hanna Bondarenko, Spuren ihrer Betrugsvorwürfe aus dem Internet zu beseitigen". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
