Through 2018, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became increasingly active in their regulation of the cryptocurrency space, particularly in regards to recent ICOs. This activity partially came in the form of Cease-and-Desists (C&D) delivered to a number of projects. Of these included Paragon.

On November 16th, 2018, Paragon (PRG) received a C&D for their 2017 ICO which raised US$12 million in the sale of, in the eyes of the SEC, unregistered securities. Per the C&D, Paragon was required to pay a US$250,000 fine to the SEC and refund investors of the ICO. In response to the news, PRG dropped to local lows of US$0.02 in the following week, for a market cap of roughly US$1.2 million. As this took place on the same time-frame as Bitcoin’s nosedive from US$6,300, the news hit the Paragon team and holders especially hard.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that a US$12 million plus $250,000 repayment is a gargantuan of an obstacle for a project barely worth seven figures. As such, many had called for the unfortunate death of Paragon, citing it’s legitimacy as a viable project versus many of the other projects the SEC struck down. Paragon trading followed these predictions. At the end of November, the coin’s market cap had fallen below US$200,000, and daily trading volume barely substantiated above the four figure mark.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Today, four months later, PRG is trading over US$0.11, with a market cap of over US$7 million. Very impressive growth during the height of the bear market, especially for a project considered dead by the larger space.

How did they do it?

Paragon is an ecosystem of services that seeks to empower businesses and individuals in the cannabis industry. The primary development the team is working towards is a seed-to-sale tracking solution for cannabis projects, similar to the authenticity tracking developed in projects like VeChain and Waltonchain, where customers will be able to verified the makeup of the strains of marijuana products at dispensaries.

Additionally, Paragon has recently developed a mobile application that can be used to make payments, record and message contacts, and interact with other features in the ecosystem. There is a co-working space for PRG users called ParagonSpace through which the app can be used to book appointments and pay.

However, proper developments alone do not bring a project “back to life”, as we have unfortunately experienced through a number of projects. The primary component of Paragon’s revival is a lot less eloquent than some of the great things they’ve been doing.

On January 1, 2019, the price of PRG was pumped sky-high US$10 per coin. The market cap eclipsed $600 million and Paragon was, for just long enough, displayed proudly on the front page of CoinMarketCap as one of the highest valued projects in the space. This pump happened on a negligible volume of US$25,000 and the price was soon returned to Earth, but it signified enough of a happening to catch the attention of everyone in the space.

With everyone talking about PRG, new money inevitably flowed in. Without listing on any larger or better respect exchanges, Paragon saw growth simply from news spreading about this peculiar project. Days after the pump the market cap had already settled above US$5 million. Today, that number has more than doubled to $12 million. And unlike just a few months prior, prospects seem to be looking up for this interesting weed coin.