Initial coin offerings have been scrutinized quite a lot over the past few weeks. The first institution to offer any official warning was the SEC. It now appears there is a date on which they will clarify their stance on ICOs. It will be interesting to see how things will play out. October 12th will be the day on which implications of blockchain technology for securities markets will be clarified. This can either be a good or disastrous day for ICOs in general.
The SEC made its stance on cryptocurrency ICos clear a few weeks ago. In their opinion, most token offerings can be labeled as securities That is not good news for any of the companies issuing such tokens whatsoever. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding this particular matter. It appears the institution will hold an investor advisory committee meeting in just over two weeks from today. This date is pretty important for the initial coin offering industry as a whole.
SEC Committee Meeting Will set the Tone
Said meeting takes place at the SEC headquarters and will be open to the public. This latter part is rather unexpected, but it is the best way to go when it comes to these concepts. This committee meeting will provide the world with more insights as to how ICOs may be regulated in the future. Considering the prior warnings issued by this institution, things will get pretty interesting, to say the least. There is no official indication as to what we can expect from this meeting, though.
Selling ICO tokens will remain a topic of substantial debate for the time being. More specifically, if tokens are securities, a lot of projects are in clear violation. That would have negative repercussions for a lot of companies, to say the least. Moreover, the SEC even referred to ICOs as pump-and-dump schemes. It is evident they are not a fan of initial coin offerings whatsoever. Nor should they be, until the proper regulation is put in place in the future. For now, all outcomes remain possible, although no one should expect any miracles whatsoever.
It will be interesting to see how this committee meeting plays out. Considering there will be blockchain advocates in the room, we should see a positive and mature discussion. It is not expected we will see clear regulation immediately, though. Instead, it may take several more months until guidelines are put in place. Rest assured this is not the last we hear about these steps by the SEC. Initial coin offerings are a very unique way of raising money, that much is certain.
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