This is unsurprising. A significant consortium of banks has coalesced around R3CEV, which (although it has yet to cut any code) has hired some credible cryptocurrency engineering talent. One can imagine that the banks have limited appetite for backing multiple horses in the same race.
The other problem here is that you have a banker, not a core technologist, trying to found a core technology company in addition to acquiring smaller companies. This is a recipe for disaster.
