In my first real post, I will go over what the regulations have done towards ICOs. Whether it is "good" or "bad", I will present the Facts, My Opinion and What It Means.
Facts:
To start off, let's have a break-down of major the recent highlights:
In summary, 3 main events have been taking place. 1) Regulators say ICO may be regulated as securities 2) Some ICO being shut down as it may be qualified as securities 3) Bitcoin futures launch
My Opinion:
Being a professional in the compliance industry, I understand and support the reasons behind the actions taken by regulators. We want to protect consumers and fight bad people. As a consumer, I don’t want to be scammed by a random group of people claiming they are inventing a revolutionary product backed by a digital token. In the contrary, as a crypto believer, part of me wants this industry to be freed from the usual regulators because I know this industry is not a big fan of regulations. In addition, even if an ICO is sold as security, it may not attract the hype crowd that I personally like. Instead, can we create our own version of “regulations” with smart contract?
Remember: regulations will always try to tame the unleashed beast in cryptos.
What It Means:
For ICO issuers, evaluate the functionality of the token to determine whether it qualifies as a security. Seeking reputable lawyers is also a big plus.
For token traders and participants, remember to trade on your own risk! If the token has already been listed on a crypto exchange, it is likely that the token is not a security. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day the exchange decides to take it down if regulators say so!
