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http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-wall-street-piles-into-cryptocurrencies-others-speak-of-biggest-scam-ever-.aspx?article=11651517744H11690&redirect=false&contributor=Wolf+Richter


I don’t remember ever having seen crazier times of more pandemic proportions.

“It is the biggest scam ever, such a huge gigantic scam that’s going to blow up in so many people’s faces. It’s far worse than anything I was ever doing,” explained Jordan Belfort concerning ICOs (initial coin offerings) of cryptocurrencies. The former penny-stock broker portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street should know: He spent 22 months in the hoosegow for securities fraud and money-laundering.

Just about anyone can call themselves a startup, make promises of future products or services, and sell digital tokens to raise funds. These digital tokens become tradable cryptocurrencies. Buyers do not receive any ownership of the startup, which is what traditional startup investors get. Instead they’re usually promised something in the future, such as free access to the service once available. It doesn’t really matter what the promises are because people buy the tokens to get rich, hoping that they’re getting into the hottest cryptocurrency on the ground floor. ICOs are not regulated and anything goes.


 :D :D

ICO's have ruined cryptocurrency.

Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Go to Jail.

And no, there is no 'good' ICO.

I watched Wolf of Wall Street, really successful
This is a true story. But we knows Ico's aren't the biggest scam this is also true.

He don't have to conclude that all of the ICOs are scam. There are legit ICOs that are getting investors to pursue their project but there are others also that are collecting money from their investors and will eventually scam them. And it definitely there's an interconnection between this guy and also Jamie Dimon because they keep on talking against bitcoin every time there will be published articles.

The problem is ICO's, not Bitcoin.

The problem is, 80% Premined 'Public Offering' coins like Ethereum pretending to be a 'cryptocurrency', and ruining bitcoin's name.

How is a 'currency' something that is produced and sold by a for-profit corporation?

That's worse than fiat!

You get-rich-quickster ICOsters are gonna find out the hard way, just like the wolf here did.

https://www.sec.gov/litigation/investreport/34-81207.pdf

ICO coins are SECURITIES, not CURRENCY.

http://consumer.findlaw.com/securities-law/what-is-the-howey-test.html

"Substance Over Form

In deciding Howey, the Supreme Court created a test that looks at an investment's substance, rather than its form, as the determining factor for whether it is a security. Even if an investment is not labeled a "stock" or "bond," it may very well be a security under the law, meaning that registration and disclosure requirements apply. After the creation of the Howey Test, some promoters masqueraded securities to try and escape registration requirements (such as by calling an offer of securities an interest in a general partnership). To deal with these charades, courts look at the economic realities behind an investment scheme, rather than at its name or form, to determine whether it is a security."

Yes those are old news, when i saw that the real Jordan Belfort said this, i really cried after seeing that, i really appreciate that guy because i enjoyed the movie, and i read a lot about his life and how did he raised his fortune.
But when i saw this.. i started to hate him, omg, maybe he is right because ico's have ruinned the market, and this is true, it is full of ico's that are only trying to raise funds in order to create a quick-rich scheme for the owners, not to the investors.
He is right, but i started to hate him because of this one..

Interesting article on subject and quote form CommerceBlock

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/investing/article-5008127/Jordan-Belfort-warns-ICOs-biggest-scam-ever.html

I read recently that a blind investment into every ICO to date would have generated a return of 1,320%. That's including the ones that have gone bust  :o

Yes, good catch and additional info.They are all hiding in bitcoin's name and the most affected coins when the talk is about cryptocurrency is bitcoin. And with this statement of Jordan Belfort, bitcoin is the most affected coin for this because those people that really don't have an idea about crypto's when ICO's or cryptocurrencies are involved to scam, they are thinking that it's bitcoin.

The biggest scammer called something a scam.
He is probably already in and making money out of it :))

Never understood the point of collecting millions of dollars through crowdfunding just to be able to develop a project that would be nowhere close to that much worth of money (in most cases at least). It is fair to bring up that many of these so called ICOs have turned out to be outright scams, running away with all the funds raised. Also, look around in the altcoin market these days, you will barely find any tokens retaining their ICO value or going higher as the whole market is diluted with rubbish.

Government regulations are necessary. I guess it will take another 2-3 years to feel confident about ICOs.

^ he might have been unlucky, following a scam project :D so he was depressed and tried to poison other people's minds in order not to contribute any more to any project. remember, not all ICO projects are SCAM.

You're either memeing real hard or you didn't dig deep enough. Sure, >99% of ICOs are either trash or outright scams, but that doesn't mean that there is no good ICO.

Agreed. I loved reading this article. ICO's are incredibly volatile - and now the whole PRE-ICO is even scarier of a concept (could go even better - or basically pre-fund a fund of a scam LOL)

Oh, what is that? And oh? I'm not surprised with it. In USA there is a lot of bankers and at the same time, i can call them all as scammer, to replace the real gold as the real world currency with useless paper. I just ripped off my fiat money and boom it is worth nothing.
I heard so many times about that. Rusia gives a good feedback right now.
US just think if the world is only in the US. They are all may do a travelling into somewhere.

Some people use ICOs to scam people therefore all ICOs are scam
Some people use registered companies to scam people therefore ... ICOs are scam trust me I'm Jordan Belfort

all these wall street people calling ICOs scam and btc a fraud are just proving that they're terrified of cryptocurrencies. hashtag moon

Maybe he can right.his's probably.i make a lot of money also i lose a lot of money on the ICO's i will never invest ICO's because its just unnecessary.I have to find very prommisng project to invest

Read:

3 kinds of ICOs - Protect Yourself
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2243157

But is it always true that 90percent of ico are scam?

No, but a large percentage are just crap. Read:

3 kinds of ICOs - Protect Yourself
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2243157

its true but paradox is that statement coming from jordan belfort :)

Yes, there are legit ICO's and having a legit projects. They want to raised funds by issuing tokens. Like the kickstarter, ICO's is another way to do it where digital currency is used. Too bad, ICO's are not regulated where anyone can do it even scammer.

I somewhat agree with what Mr. Belfort said about ICOs. Not all, but a majority of the ICOs are scam and if it can't be controlled now, it will become similar to the hyip market. People will raise money by showing a great concept to the mass and then run away with that money without actually bringing that project into reality. China has already banned ICO and as per some recent news, Canada has started cracking down some ICO scammers recently. ICO market needs a big time cleanup otherwise, it will only bring down the reputation of crypto currency market.

Well written thread for education , for me personally it's pretty obvious that recently ICO used as a scam opportunity ,
Too much bad people , the one who have a real plan and real products sometimes has no interest in it ,
It's because the scam ico always offering non sense rewards ,
And people as always hooked and get trapped there , not surprising at all greedy people everywhere.

You talk about ICOs being scam, you are the first idiot investing on every new ICO, it is so easy to get money from people, they are posting threads to sell you tokens. you think because it's on Ξ blockchain it must be legit? lol you not. I am the girls jumper of wall street.

I also watched that movie and im saddened because in order to achieve great wealth you need to dump other people. The movie story is somehow true.

He does have a point that anyone could start up a token, sell a token that has no product but a vision, then disappear or defunct the project.  Everyone would have to use due diligence to find the best ones that suite the cyrptocurrency market.  Every ICO is a risk but as they say, the higher the risk, the greater the reward.

I think that not all ICO's are scam. Not all, but a majority of em. If you believe what team is doing you can invest.
I believe in Confideal.

This is one of the disadvantage crypto currencies or altcoins is it's decentralized nature cause it is not own by anyone thus people can use it however they like whether good or bad. So now the job of one the of the biggest CEO in the US is to accused bitcoin everyday as fraud when bitcoin enters a dip they buy lots of it because they think it is more profitable than their actual business. I rather invest or altcoin or bitcoin than listen to a capitalist who is threatened by this digital currencies.

With more and more currency daily, its becoming hard to identify genuine ones

While some of you in this thread are arguing that there are good ICOs - yes, thank you, every single time anyone says that a general population of something are bad, there has to be that one person that says, "Well, not all ___ are bad!".

Yes, we know, there are the FAR and few between ICOs that have truly good projects, a great dev team, and create a new and groundbreaking project that becomes a staple for what it's known for. But that's not enough, there needs to be a lot more that are making new ground for the total of ICOs to be considered as having a positive impact in the altcoin space. Currently, they're really not, and more often than not in threads, you find people that avoid them at all costs, as it's so difficult to tell the good from the bad. I'm one of those people, and I'm excited for the day I'll get to actually invest in an ICO because we've reached the point where it's not so plagued with scams.

Don't worry! ICOs have some disadvantages, for sure. But I don't think we should worry about them. To be a profesial investor, you have to pay somethings. Maybe you will lose a mount of money with Scam projects. But after that, you have knowledge and experience to find a good ICO.

This guy is talking from experience because he has seen this all, 99% of ICO will end up been a scam, I believe most of these developers don't set up to be one, but as we can see greed all over the place, how can they team be controlling 90% of the tokens and  even selling out their ICO to whales to help pump and dump

I would always think twice before ever quoting something from the Daily Mail yet alone taking it serious. They have been known to do nothin gbut spread absolute BS in the UK. It is somewhat used as a barometer of gullibility over here.

Well, we know that in the near future more people will know and join the world of cryptocoins. Among these people, a good part is easily duped by promises to multiply their capital quickly and becomes easy prey to scammers of all kinds. So I must say that I fully understand what he means when it comes to ICOs as a scam modality.

Most ICO now are trade below their price on first day, now that say something.

Based on the movie, people are spending dollar on such investments which are intangible, like what ICO's are. They are chronic these days and people like Jordan Belfort in the past will use this kind of venture to earn easy money. But, not all ICO's are the same. Look at ETH, LTC, XMR and other coins that are currently in the Top 10 or 20 of crypto. they designed their ICO (project) for the future and people support it as they were created within this generation needs. Hence, they receive more backing and support.

If you will go with an intangible asset or investment look what the project lies ahead in the future and not just in short term. Ask yourself if the project has a good motive and will truly break into this generation as a necessity.

I don't know if 90% are a scam. But most that aren't will fail anyways because they lack experience and skills or simply made promises that can't be fulfilled for other reasons.

Most ICOs just took place this year... give an ICO company time to develop their products!

There are a few bad projects and scams around, but you just need to do your homework.

This guy is a joke and a crook. Only talking about this stuff to get back into the limelight. Clearly he is bored / doesn't understand it.

It's not just a few, there are a lot of scams and terrible projects around. But they're usually very obvious to tell apart from the real and good ones. And the ones that aren't completely obvious don't need a lot of research to be debunked either.

Of course there are scams around. That's why you always have to double check everything before you decide to invest.

though he is my idol,but i dont agree with him that all ICOs are scam but most of ICOs would be scam newbies .

This just shows how often we deal with money-related scams. We can not trust anyone, because we will always find someone who will want to cheat on our way. It's sad but true.

I care as much what this scam artist thinks about cryptocurrency ICO's as I do about what Bernie Madoff thinks.

I believe his opinion is true, most of these developers want to have their cake and eat it, see BCAP for example, the token has no value a very well perfected scam and alot of projects are in these category

I would not argue with such authority, but all the same, not all is cheating, there are honest people who, on the collected money, give people a product.

He's a scammer so he knows it stuff  ;D

Says the man who invented 'scamming' in the first place!
They are turning day into night and night into day...!

It really shouldn't surprise anyone that most ICOs are just scams, no? Most don't even have a clear vision of what they are going to do.