In late 2017 Crypterium marketed itself as a cryptobank that would make coins spendable at ordinary tills — the landing page even borrowed the swagger of calling itself the “JP Morgan of crypto”. Public sale figures put the raise near the hard-cap story of roughly fifty million dollars and tens of thousands of buyers. CRPT was sold as platform fuel: fees, burns, loyalty programmes paid in the same token. That mix of utility theatre and banking costume was classic ICO packaging.
What followed was the slower half of the story. Card-industry hire names appeared; the brand later rebranded toward Choise / Choise.ai with a new CHO token and exchange migration notices (KuCoin, for example, documented a CRPT→CHO swap). High advertised yields on a non-bank platform are not the same as a deposit guarantee. Lithuanian company records list UAB Choise Services (code 305964183) in liquidation status from April 2025; user reports describe frozen withdrawals and claims processes. That is a corporate wind-down and market history, not a courtroom verdict about every individual involved — but it is a poor match for the original “everyday payments everywhere” promise.
The lesson travels beyond this ticker. If the product only works if you keep buying the house token, if “bank” language outruns custody and licence facts, and if every stuck balance is answered with another rebrand, treat the raise as speculative entertainment at best. Check the live legal entity, the VASP register where one exists, and whether withdrawals actually clear before you fund nostalgia for 2017.
If you are stuck after a crypto-platform wind-down, start at Get help. If a stranger offers paid recovery of CRPT or CHO, read Fake recovery first.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.