Crypto Startup TokenPay Buys Equity Stake in Heidi Klum Lingerie Maker

Cryptocurrency startup TokenPay is getting into the lingerie business.

Revealed in a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Switzerland-based startup has spent $1.3 million for a 6 percent equity stake in Naked Brand Group, the Australian lingerie company best known for supermodel Heidi Klum's signature fashion lines.

Spending token sale proceeds on equity investments has been a hedge against crypto market volatility, Capo said.

In the interview, Capo further detailed how TokenPay has spent its sale earnings so far - including nearly $4 million spent buying equity in Germany's WEG Bank AG in mid-2018.

In an arrangement initially brokered over Twitter, a 9.9 percent equity stake in the bank was donated to the Litecoin Foundation, while TokenPay kept the same amount of equity for itself.

Although there is no formal commitment to integrate TPAY or TokenPay merchant services, Capo hopes investing in companies like Naked Brand Group and WEG Bank AG will eventually facilitate both TPAY use cases and the infrastructure for that token's adoption.

Other purchases with token sale earnings included a 10 percent stake in the privacy-coin-oriented mutual fund TokenSussie, a portfolio of crypto-related domain names and an undisclosed amount of equity in the Latin American blockchain company BlockSize, which is currently working on a decentralized exchange.

Plus, Capo said TokenPay also paid more than $50,000 for traditional exchange listings and donated $2.5 million worth of crypto to the Verge community to incentivize the adult entertainment site Pornhub to accept XVG for porn subscriptions.

In sum, over the past 15 months, the startup has spent more than half of the fiat value of its token sale.

According to Capo, the startup retains roughly 10 percent of its bitcoin in a long-term treasury and has spent $1.5 million on operating costs such as salaries.