Photo by Baz Ratne / Reuters
The US authorities tightened the requirements for companies that raise funds for a start-up with the help of ICO. The more dangerous are the investments in virtual token shares and why they equated them to ordinary ones in the US, RBC explained
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) last week issued a warning to market participants, which equated the initial offer of ICO crypto-currency projects to the traditional placement of securities and warned about the need to register such transactions.
"Federal securities laws apply to those who put up for sale and sell securities in the US, regardless of whether the issuing organization is a traditional company or a decentralized autonomous organization, regardless of whether these securities are purchased using US dollars Or virtual currencies, and irrespective of whether they are distributed in a certified form or through registration technology, "the SEC said.
Almost IPO
ICO (initial coin offering) resembles the initial placement of securities on the stock exchange (IPO), but in its course for the sale of a stake in the company, investors are paid with a crypto currency, for example bitcoins. The key difference between ICO and the usual initial public offering is that companies sell not a business that has already been created, but essentially promises - a contract describing the structure of tokens (digital tokens). And the promise of future results in ICO is the only guarantee for investors, says managing partner of United Traders Anatoly Radchenko.
Some companies provide their tokens with gold or end products. For example, in May, Mikhail Kollyanovo's Mikhail Shlyapnikov's farm in the Moscow Region attracted more than $ 500,000 to the ICO via the Waves platform. Commodity coupons were used as tokens-colons. Investors with tokens of the company can later sell them for money, or get the products produced by the farm, in particular seedlings from the nursery. According to Radchenko, tokens can also be used to pay for goods, for example, to be discounts or with their help, investors are transferred part of the management of the company, the right to participate in the distribution of profits.
The conditions for entering the IPO are strict: all securities that are issued in the territory of a certain country are registered in accordance with its legislation. Moreover, on the eve of the deal, information about the beneficiaries is fully disclosed, information about the company is compulsorily audited, adds Anatoly Radchenko. If in the United States companies in the disclosure of this information deceived by the SEC, the guilty can face from 20 to 30 years of prison, he says. Besides,
People who invest money in IPO projects should be qualified investors with "clean money", the expert explains. In the ICO relation, no restrictions or rules have been formulated until recently.
The legal settlement of the ICO status will oblige all issuers to register, which should contribute to the transparency of this market. However, both organizers and investors do not want to show their income, says Vadim Valeev, CEO of Cryptinvest.biz. In this regard, he believes that large fi nite companies "will go offshore", avoiding the attention of the regulator. "Companies either go into the shadows, or simply register outside the country, for example, in Singapore, so as not to pay taxes and not face regulators," he said.
The started regulation of the ICO was criticized by Pavel Durov, the creator of the telegram messenger and the social network "VKontakte". In his opinion, thus, "the SEC prohibited American companies and investors from taking part in the future of the world economy," he wrote in his Twitter.
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