SEC Rules That ICO Tokens Are Securities (vice.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Business Insider: On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that "ICOs" (Initial Coin Offerings) can sometimes be considered securities -- and as such are subject to strict laws and regulations. For the uninitiated, ICOs are a fancy new way of fundraising enabled by digital currencies like Ethereum -- participants invest money and receive digital "tokens" in return. Thus far, it has been largely unregulated, with some ICO crowdfunding events raising hundreds of millions of dollars -- leading some observers to argue that it is a massive bubble. But the SEC's warning means that this free-for-all may not last forever.

"Going forward, according to the SEC, companies that are issuing tokens as part of an ICO (if they are considered securities) need to register with the commission," reports Motherboard. "This will force companies to comply with regulations that ask them to reveal their financial position and the identities of their management. The SEC also concluded that online exchanges where tokens are bought and traded may have to register as security exchanges."

schwit1 adds a quote from Benito Mussolini: "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

Comments

Overseas

[dohzer]

So launch them overseas. Problem solved.

Re:Court Challenge

[DerekLyons]

Seriously, Etherium, Bitcoin and the like are unique mathematical stores of value, more similar to that rare drop you got in your MMO than a security instrument.

It's funny... all the alt.currency advocates were all about how "cryptocurrency is real money" - until the government started actually treating them as real money. Now they're backpedaling.

Re:Oh puh-leeze. Mussolini?

[NoMaster]

Not to mention the Mussolini quote dates from 1928 - a time when the USA didn't have a "rah rah democracy" foreign policy, fascism was considered a valid style of government and not a dirty word, and Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR were supportive of what they saw as a libertarian progressive Italian government that would resist Communism...