In a move that goes counter to the current regulatory trend the Taiwanese government has taken a positive approach to the new cryptocurrency market; "Just because China and South Korea are banning, doesn't mean that Taiwan should follow suit – there is a huge opportunity for growth in the future,” explained Wellington Koo, Chairman of Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission. Source.
Jay Clayton's statements suggest that firms using ICOs may need to register them with the SEC; he stated in a speech on Wednesday, "I have yet to see an ICO that doesn’t have a sufficient number of hallmarks of a security."; there have been more than 160 ICOs to date which have raised over $3 billion. Source
Canadian securities regulators released what they call a staff notice on "cryptocurrency offerings"; Coindesk reports on the notice, "With the offerings that we have reviewed to date, we have in many instances found that the coins/tokens in question constitute securities for the purposes of securities laws, including because they are investment contracts."; this has now become a trend in the market as the US SEC released a report and Chinese regulators released a statement about how they view this emerging capital raising method; the statement also covers companies looking to set up funds and encourages a regulatory sandbox to be created. Source
Hong Kong financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), has announced that tokens issued via initial coin offerings (ICOs) may be classified as securities; the classification may extend beyond ICOs into digital asset exchanges dealing in the tokens. Source
National Internet Finance Association (NIFA) of China on August 30 released ICOs risk alerts; the Association highlights two kinds of risks: 1) some projects raise money in the name of ICO with misguided publicity and this may lead to illegal fundraising; 2) the assets of some ICO projects remain unclear and the information disclosure is far from sufficient. Source (Chinese)
Business Insider takes a look back at one of the biggest trends in finance from 2017; Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs have become one of the main ways for companies in the blockchain space to raise capital; more than $3.5bn was raised using this method; some of the top raises include $153mn by The Bancor Protocol, $232mn by Tezos and $257mn by Filecoin. Source.
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report on the initial coin offering (ICO) of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (the DAO), which raised almost $150 million from investors using this new capital raising method (before returning the money); the report explained that the SEC views this ICO as a sale of securities and that the DAO was in violation of securities laws, though no enforcement action was taken. Source
Alex Tapscott has raised $20 million for NextBlock Global, an investment firm investing in projects selling cryptographic tokens; he now has plans to list the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange; Tapscott is also the co-author of "Blockchain Revolution," which he wrote with his father, Don Tapscott, last year; with the IPO listing of NextBlock Global he hopes to further accelerate adoption of ICOs and blockchain. Source
While regulators have shut down exchanges the market is still showing signs of life as investors are trading bitcoin and buying into ICOs; investors are using the price over the counter market to buy and sell cryptocurrencies; investors are also using messaging apps like WeChat and Telegram to get deals done; bitcoin miners are where the authorities have found greater success as there has been a big hit to miners since the crackdown occurred. Source.
Through a partnership with MicroVentures, Indiegogo will allow investors to participate in ICOs; accredited investors will be able to buy Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) where tokens are delivered on a certain date; the first ICO being advertised is the Fan-Controlled Football League. Source