Crypto startup DeHealth promised a metaverse for doctors and patients, while investors received the DHLT token, which collapsed by nearly 100%. Founder Hanna Bondarenko initially spoke of a “theft” by the market maker, then described it as “just a price drop,” while mentions of the scheme began disappearing from the internet.

We are publishing this material in full to remind readers how the “digital future of medicine” was sold — and what is now being erased.

A new scandal is brewing in the digital assets market. Investors of the Ukrainian crypto startup are complaining about financial losses from the DeHealth (DHLT) token issued by the British non-profit organization DeHealth of the same name.

One of the co-founders of this company is Ukrainian Hanna Bondarenko, originally from Kropyvnytskyi. Her official biography states that she is an IT entrepreneur and professional violinist, together with Denys Tsvaih is a co-founder of DeHealth and heads the international eHealth consortium. At the same time, Bondarenko also works in the fashion industry: she founded the designer clothing brand Palson Kifot.

In December 2021, Bondarenko announced the start of creating a so-called decentralized metaverse from 2022 and promised to transfer millions of doctors and patients to a new world where they could interact with each other in 3D format, receive necessary consultations and provide medical information, and at the same time earn virtual assets by selling their anonymous medical data. The main means of payment in the announced metaverse was the DHLT token.

At the start of the project, it was talked about its large scale: it was designed for 3 million users. This could not fail to impress potential investors.

But problems started very quickly. On February 23, 2022, the crypto startup conducted the first placement of DHLT tokens. They were sold out in a few hours. However, a few weeks later, the project founders told investors that the money had allegedly been stolen by a market maker, and they were dealing with the situation.

“Bondarenko told me that the market maker drained liquidity on the exchange. That is, allegedly stole the money. And that lawyers and cyber police are now handling this,” said one of the foreign investors.

But then, according to him, the concept changed dramatically.

“After some time, Bondarenko no longer mentioned that someone had stolen the money, and said that the token rate had simply fallen sharply, and nothing could be done about it – such are the quotes. The rate fell 10 times. That is, if I withdraw money now, I will get 10 times less than when I invested. And most interestingly, no one mentions any thief-market maker anymore. We now understand that the theft story was most likely a fake to calm investors for the first time, so they wouldn’t withdraw money right away. And lately, they generally answer all questions that they are now working with the Ministry of Defense, and have no time for trifles,” the investor says.

It should be noted that investors really took a big hit on DHLT tokens. If a year ago, in mid-September 2022, the DHLT token was still worth 1.2 UAH, then by September 15, 2023, its price dropped to 2 kopecks (0.02 UAH) — by 98.1%. If it continues like this, it will soon be worth nothing.

In addition, back in April this year, the daily turnover of DHLT on the exchange reached $531 thousand, and now it has fallen 11 times — to $48.5 thousand.

“The capitalization of the asset is not zero, but close to it. I think there are many who want to sell it. I myself try to stay away from such instruments,” says financial analyst Andriy Shevchyshyn.

Last year’s placement of DHLT took place on the Pancakeswap platform, and its authors proudly stated that all tokens were sold out in less than two hours. Currently, the token is listed on the BitMart exchange.

The founders of PancakeSwap themselves may not be committing fraudulent actions. But since they do not verify and do not control token issuers, those can freely engage in fraud. There are many reviews about this on specialized forums.

“Scammers often create coins with the same name as well-known and promising ones, and show how they grow in price,” says one of the reviews about PancakeSwap on a crypto forum.

Although there is a warning for users on the PancakeSwap platform: “Anyone can create a BEP20 token on BSC with any name, including creating fake versions of existing tokens, claiming to represent projects that do not have a token. If you buy an arbitrary token, you may not be able to sell it back.”

Such an announcement was made specifically so that in case of fraud by the issuer, the exchange could always say that it has nothing to do with it.

However, investors now have questions not for the exchange, but for those who launched the DHLT token.

“In the near future, I plan to file a statement against them for opening a criminal case for theft and fraud, I see no other way out,” said one of the foreign investors.