The New Jersey Securities Bureau has announced legal action with respect to two ICO projects operating in its jurisdiction.
Canadian and U.S. regulators under the leadership of the North American Securities Administrators Association, with the participation of state representatives, issued an urgent order on Wednesday to terminate the operations of the Zoptax and UNOcall projects.
The order was issued as part of the "Crypto-cleaning" operation of the local authorities. According to the Bureau, both ICOs were engaged in fraudulent distribution of securities. Zoptax collected between $500,000 and $3.4 million through the sale of Zoptax Coin's cryptocurrency, and UNOcall produced tokens using its own stacking protocol, promising daily interest payments ranging from 0.18% to 0.88% on invested funds.
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said that the nature of the issue, the purpose of the investment and the misleading information to consumers formed the basis of the decision to completely suspend the issue of cryptocurrencies.
New Jersey Attorney General Herbert Grewal noted that market rules apply to all companies, regardless of the tools they use.
"The Securities Bureau is ready to apply laws to protect our investors in episodes related to initial coin placements and cryptocurrency investment schemes. While the development of the cryptocurrency investment market continues, market participants should be aware that they are also subject to all applicable rules," he said.