Initial Coin Offerings are now mushrooming in Germany as well and the regulator published a guidance note explaining the circumstances under which tokens are “financial instruments”.
Andrew Bailey said in a key speech last year: “The FCA is an exciting place to be, the challenges come thick and fast”. The same can certainly be said of the FS sector in 2018.
There’s increasing demand for best practices, codes of conduct and self-regulatory frameworks to be developed. And there are signs that the sector is responding.
Reported valuations of cryptocurrencies and digital assets are on the rise. With cryptocurrency investors entering into unsecured and/or secured financing, the risks attached to this trend are noteworthy.
According to estimates, approximately 80% of all ICOs are fraudulent offerings and most of the remaining ICOs are difficult to evaluate.
Regulators have started to voice their opinion and it ranges from treating “coins” like a security to outright banning banning ICOs.