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> [The SEC] obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt a fast-moving Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud that raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August by falsely promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. To me, the PlexCoin homepage [1] is indistinguishable from all the other ICO homepages I've seen. - bootstrap homepage: check - beautiful graphics with actors and coins: check - unclear…
Good. The first step to establishing a regulatory framework is defining boundaries of acceptable behavior by shutting down egregious violations.
What about the folks who love cryptocurrency specifically because of the fact it is unregulated? Are we not doing that anymore?
You can simultaneously hate scam ICOs and still not want most other aspects of cryptocurrencies to be regulated. There are lots of different regulations that different people find acceptable.
if the company's in quebec, how were they able to freeze their assets? did the company have exchange accounts in US? does the SEC have some sort of agreement with the canadians?
All ICOs should be banned! When you see all these scams around, you start appreciating regulation, law, and order more! I am not sure why so many engineers today are into anarchy when it's entirely against the basis of computer science and engineering in general! I get the idea about the distributed systems for higher resilience, but going against the merits of states and governments is just childish!
Ban those too?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about the folks who love cryptocurrency specifically because of the fact it is unregulated? Are we not doing that anymore?
"Regulation" isn't a one-dimensional thing. You can simultaneously hate scam ICOs and still not want most other aspects of cryptocurrencies to be regulated. There are lots of different regulations that different people find acceptable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which ICO was not a scam ?
Scam =/= terrible investment idea. Tezos and Filecoin, for example, are not scams. They are serious projects that are attempting to bring something useful to the market. That said, they raised wayyy too much money, and may end up being terrible investments that don't return any profit, but that applies to many startups as well. PlexCoin offered guaranteed 1300% returns or your money back. That is a pure scam.
if the company's in quebec, how were they able to freeze their assets? did the company have exchange accounts in US? does the SEC have some sort of agreement with the canadians?
Maybe the AMF had information about accounts in USA and tipped the SEC?
[0] https://lautorite.qc.ca/en/general-public/media-centre/news/...
EDIT:
More information: The court order preventing him to launch Plexcoin was issued on July 20[1]. He did not comply and was charged for court contempt in September. The court found him guilty on oct 17 2017[2].
[1] https://lautorite.qc.ca/en/general-public/media-centre/news/...
[2] French only - https://lautorite.qc.ca/grand-public/salle-de-presse/actuali...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which ICO was not a scam ?
Scam =/= terrible investment idea. Tezos and Filecoin, for example, are not scams. They are serious projects that are attempting to bring something useful to the market. That said, they raised wayyy too much money, and may end up being terrible investments that don't return any profit, but that applies to many startups as well. PlexCoin offered guaranteed 1300% returns or your money back. That is a pure scam.
Any ICO marketed as an investment is likely illegal in the United States. Not necessarily a prima facie scam, but in violation of the Securities and Exchange Act.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scam =/= terrible investment idea. Tezos and Filecoin, for example, are not scams. They are serious projects that are attempting to bring something useful to the market. That said, they raised wayyy too much money, and may end up being terrible investments that don't return any profit, but that applies to many startups as well. PlexCoin offered guaranteed 1300% returns or your money back. That is a pure scam.
> Scam =/= terrible investment idea. Any ICO marketed as an investment is likely illegal in the United States. Not necessarily a prima facie scam, but in violation of the Securities and Exchange Act.
1) Filecoin and other ICOs are using Cooley's SAFT instrument in order to comply with US securities laws, and as a result, have limited marketing to accredited investors.
2) Lots of ICOs are banning US investors.
All ICOs should be banned! When you see all these scams around, you start appreciating regulation, law, and order more! I am not sure why so many engineers today are into anarchy when it's entirely against the basis of computer science and engineering in general! I get the idea about the distributed systems for higher resilience, but going against the merits of states and governments is just childish!
There is little doubt that many ICO's are 'scams', and some people will get hurt financially because of it.
The challenge with regulations is, it's easy to quantify the harm they try to stop, but it's harder understand the impact they have on limiting future creation / innovation etc.
Tokens / ICO's have created a whole new, far more accessible way to fund and invest in new technology. Making it far more equal, fast, open and liquid than the traditional process.
Regulation is coming, as it should. I just hope it's done with an eye for encouraging the right type action, rather than just trying to stop the wrong.