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SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

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Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#111

Post by nickfromseattle »

alwaysnotright wrote: post #75
verroq wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether is not an ICO and quite clear what it does. It is supposed to be a token that pegged to USD to facilitate the moving of USD via the blockchain instead of having to bother with the pain and fees of banks. Its market cap rises as more USD is deposited into their banks.

Sadly there is a lot of red flags indicating that this is not the case, they haven't had banking since April so there are no way to deposit funds to them for regular users at least. Also, one employee from Bitfinex suggested on reddit that Tether is funded by crypto deposit to them and not USD...

The tether scandal is highly concerning. Essentially Bitfinex and Tether are owned by the same people, the Tethers issued do not appear to be backed by USD, and there are almost a billion tethers issued - which many believe is responsible for the increase in BitCoin.

They've claimed they are ready to release audit details for 2+ years (no audit), and the founding team has also gone on the record about wash trading and other fraudulent financial activity.

Additionally, Bitfinex had some 'flash crashes' that wiped out people's margin accounts. Some believe the flash crash was caused by Bitfinex themselves on purpose to accomplish this exact goal.

Stay up to date at https://www.twitter.com/bitfinxed & https://reddit.com/r/bitfinex

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#112

Post by conanbatt »

cableshaft wrote: post #92
cwperkins wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's pretty sound reasons why non-accredited investors can only invest in public tradable assets. Accredited investors can get into non-public companies if they earn a high enough income such that they can take that kind of volatility. For students fresh out of college that should focus on saving, it is not a great idea to throw those savings into non-public startups. It sure sounds tempting, but many times over h…

People should be allowed to make risky investments if they want, especially if they keep that risk to a small percentage of their portfolio. Besides, the lotto and casinos exist and are still allowed in most places, which is basically what you're leaving these people to do (and what I've seen many younger people waste their money instead). Isn't it this very website where people over and over again say that the best…

People really dont understand how accesisble buying crypto is in comparison to typical asset classes, specially outside the U.S.

To open a brokerage account in argentina, you have to physically go to an office to sign up, and pay thousands of dollars upfront to just open an account.

Banks are also a hassle to open an account at, since they charge you 20-50U$S a month plus comission charges are in the 4-5% on funds.

Bitcoin was great because it was also an easy way to receive funds as a kid (circa 2010).

Not being regulated has been the greatest advantage to the crypto market.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#113

Post by Balgair »

donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [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…

Zhang should really update the page for the 'block-chain-coins' era: http://tiffzhang.com/startup/?s=785536181453

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#114

Post by tstyle »

donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [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…

It sounds like the key difference from the typical ICO page is the promise of a 13 fold return.

I'm curious to see how they managed to phrase the promise, but it seem to have been removed from the page.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#115

Post by Frogolocalypse »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #91
Frogolocalypse wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't. You can create an ICO with a github account and dodgy php. To create a company and list it, it is a wee bit more complex.

You don't have to list it in order to scam people with it. They can buy stocks even in non-listed companies. At least not listed on major exchanges. While it might be easier to make a compelling ICO, registering a scammy company is also relatively easy (1k-2k USD). Or perhaps a bit more if you want to come up with some questionable tech and defraud some VCs with experience. It has been done, it is still being done. U…

And that is why securities are regulated.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#116

Post by jondubois »

modeless wrote: post #49

People might not be so eager to dump money into these scam investments if the government hadn't strangled legal and regulated equity crowdfunding. The SEC needs to look at ways to allow people to invest in legitimate opportunities, not just shut down scams. The JOBS act has been a bust in this regard as far as I can see.

I think that's a very insightful statement.

Right now regular people only have a few different options to invest in:

1. Stocks

2. Bonds

3. Cash

4. Your own bootstrapped business

5. Cryptocurrencies

6. Lottery

The first 2 are obviously limited growth opportunities... Corporations are already massive, people will never get the 100x or 1000x returns that they need to actually notice any lifestyle difference... And even if they did, by that point the world would be a horrible place not worth living in and you'd be near the bottom of the pile because you got in too late.

Interest rates are too low so holding cash is pointless.

In this VC-dominated and corporation-dominated landscape, the odds of successfully bootstrapping your own business are near zero and everyone knows it.

Lottery usually appeals to the working class due to the large potential payoffs. But everyone knows that the odds are terrible and that there are middlemen taking a cut.

Cryptocurrencies on the other hand are like a giant international startup which aims to disrupt the entire financial system and which is in a very good position to do so because everyone is in on it. The returns are great and the odds are much better than lottery.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#117

Post by toomanybeersies »

We had a similar thing happen a week or so ago in New Zealand, with the Financial Markets Authority warning against an ICO: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...

The ICO was later withdrawn: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...

Basic rundown: 19 year old "serial entrepreneur" buys a Carosell [0] (similar to craigslist) clone script for a couple of grand (apparently he claimed to have made it himself), claims to have millions of users after a couple of months, and then tries to launch an ICO. It was a blatant scam, he was called out for it, and ended up cancelling the ICO, and promising to return all the money.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousell_(company)

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#118

Post by josu »

Zarath wrote: post #25
donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [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…

This is indistinguishable... really? This is so obviously a scam it hurts. The first sentence doesn't even make sense, let alone have proper grammar.

>The first sentence doesn't even make sense, let alone have proper grammar.

Sadly this is the case for many "legitimate" ICOs. Understand legitimate as non-fraudulent.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#119

Post by omarchowdhury »

nikolay wrote: post #48
canadaduane wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your statement of appreciating law and order, but I think there is also a general malaise surrounding who gets to benefit from all of the currently "legal" financial arrangements. There's a feeling that the little guy is left out--or at most, given the dregs after private equity deals, large mergers, and IPOs go down. ICOs--while risky and uncertain--also offer a way of taking action without waiting for…

I don't think the government has to approve all startups funded via StartEngine or Republic, which do crowdfunding along with many others.

In fact, Regulation A offerings do require approval from the SEC.
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