ICOs powered the crypto boom/bubble of 2017, but were slapped down and effectively banned by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which declared virtually all of them illegal unregistered securities sales. The result ranged from multi-million dollar fines to the outright killing of projects such as Telegram’s TON blockchain.
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RECoin, Diamond ICO scammer Maksim Zaslavskiy jailed 18 months
Prosecution of the RECoin and Diamond initial coin offering set precedent defining cryptocurrencies as securities
Maksim Zaslavskiy was sentenced to 18 months in prison on November 18 for conspiracy to commit securities fraud in the RECoin and Diamond initial coin offerings.
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SEC finally approves cryptocurrency offering, green-lighting Blockstack token offering
The distributed web platform developer can sell up to $50 million worth of tokens to the public
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finally given a blockchain company the O.K. to sell tokens directly to investors—sort of. The SEC on Wednesday approved blockchain startup Blockstack’s application to raise money via a token offering, the first time it has allowed this type of fundraising in the cryptocurrency industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. The SEC has sued and fined several companies for initial coin offerings (ICO) that the agency said violated securities law. The action “is a massive step towards the much-needed clarity for the US crypto space,” according to social trading platform eToro’s senior market analyst, Mati Greenspan. “This could be considered the first regulated…
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SEC settles complaint against self-reporting ICO
Ruling could be problematic for fraudsters of 2017 and 2018
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Gladius Network LLC with conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO), even after the company self-reported themselves to the commission. Companies that fund through an ICO must register the coins as securities, the SEC clarified on Wednesday. Gladius will have to offer speculators a refund.
