The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) informed that it has today issued two Statements on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), one on risks of ICOs for investors and one on the rules applicable to firms involved in ICOs. ESMA has observed a rapid growth in ICOs globally and in Europe and is concerned that investors…
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The Wolf of Wall Street, whose securities frauds were recounted in the film of the same name - where Jordan Belfort was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio - told the Financial Times that ICOs were “the biggest scam ever” and that they would “blow up [in investors’] faces.” It is the biggest scam ever, such a…
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The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has set out in Guidance its approach to Initial Coin/Token Offerings (ICOs) and virtual currencies under the Financial Services and Markets Regulations (FSMR). Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has extraordinarily wide application to financial services and markets as a whole. Virtual tokens, at their…
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a businessman and his two companies with defrauding investors in a pair of so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) purportedly backed by investments in real estate and diamonds. The SEC alleges that Maksim Zaslavskiy and his companies have been selling unregistered securities, and the digital tokens or coins…
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The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has made a statement in which cautions investors, as the commission has noted the emergence of digital token based fundraising activities / investment schemes in Malaysia and elsewhere, which may be referred to as “initial coin offerings”, “initial token offerings”, “token pre-sale”, “token crowd-sale” (collectively referred to as ICO schemes…
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