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Although I know that residents of USA are restricted from participating in ICO's, I was wondering what exactly would happen if a USA resident does indeed go around it and still put their money into one. Would the SEC take the money, or what kind of consequences are there?

Well, you can always bypass limitations with VPN or any proxy of sorts*, but if the ICO requires identification to confirm that you aren't using a proxy to bypass a supposed IP block on the website, they will still see that you aren't an US citizen. So the next step would be to use a fake ID... which is ridiculous. Why would you want to get into so much trouble to get in some ICO. Just stay legal. Find any other ICO's that aren't hosted in the USA. I think most will stop happening in the USA because ultimately what the ICO guys want is the entire planet being able to participate in order to get as much money as possible. But with less restrictions comes easier ways for scammers to scam, so do due dilligence and you should be ok.

*Even if you used a VPN, once you want to cash out, you would need to explain where these gains came from, so they would see that you are an US citizen that bypassed a law with an VPN... this could lead to problems. If it's not an huge amount I guess you can get away with it tho.

Guys, thank for such interesting topic and for full answer. Now I’m really thrilled what is so perspective ICO in USA if you are ready to do any afford to participate.

You might get into real trouble and it is not worth because it is hard to find really good ICO project that you could trust 100 %
So it might happen that you take double risk:
- ICO scam
- infringement of US Laws.

Maybe I can help u

This group provide
"US citizens to participate in ICO without RISK!!"

For the process

1.If you want to participate in which ICO ,you have to tell us what ICO you want and give us "Your Ethereum address and Your E-mail ( no password)"

2.Then we will create your account with my IDcard(Thailand citizens) in that ICO and fill your Ethereum address

3.So,you don't have to transfer your money to anyone, you can send ETH to ICO with your account

4.We make a deal ( You pay us, then we give you an ID-Password to login in that website, which mean you can wait till ICO start and get ETH address by yourself)

Join https://www.facebook.com/groups/1584766564942258/

It's my understanding that the legal issues do not necessarily relate to the buyers/participants in the ICO, but with the companies offering the ICO.  If you offer a security for sale to the public and allow USA participants, then you are required to follow SEC law.  If you do not register with the SEC, then they can file a lawsuit against you...regardless of where your business is located in the world. 

The exclusion of USA citizens is merely an attempt to protect the company offering the ISO from SEC laws.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'd really like to have proper understanding of this topic.

Thanks!

Pay another person to complete the KYC proces is can be done to. there always another choice.

How can those US citizens be so sure that you won't steal the tokens from them since you are going to created the wallet and you will know the password and the private key? This is one of the scammiest thing I ever heard in this community.

Its really hard to bypass the regulations for US citizens to join and invest on ICO. I'm sure sooner or later they will found out what you did, and you might regret your decisions later. There are a lot of legal implications that will get yourself in trouble. I'm sure that heavy penalties and worst jail time are to be expected.

i really do not know about what are the consequences if a us citizen is found breaking this law.
but what i do understand is that, there really are ways if an american citizen would really want to join icos. but would really not make any sense if the capital and potential gains would be too small. although it may not be detectable, it wouldn't be worth the efforts. and even if the capital, and potential profits may be great, then problems like fund questioning when you wanna cash out will really get you into so much trouble. so why even bother?

i think the most logical thing to do is just stop doing something that you know is not allowed in your country. the potential profits compared to the risks just obviously isn't worth the hassle.

and besides, most of the legitimate ICOs nowadays really do not accept us citizens together with all the other people living on countries in which cryptos are declared to be banned.

people really need to realize that crypto is just another opportunity to earn just like other jobs or investments out there and not something that can guarantee anyone financial success. financial success entirely depends on a person's hard work and resilience. if that's not the case, then there would not be a single successful businessman or investor existing today.

You can hire someone to participate for you. It would be nice if you have a trusted relative which is not a US Citizen and participate on the ICO and probably just pay him after. Just keep all the private keys for yourself. I think you'll have a problem with the KYC and a little problem with converting to fiat money after the ICO although you can join groups that supports person-to-person (p2p) coin exchange so all funds are directed to your bank. Maybe as long as you don't involve a big amount of money in one transaction, I guess everything will be good.

The problem is how to find someone that you can trust outside of the USA. I'm sure that there are a lot of US citizens that doesn't have much relative living outside. And it involves money. And we all know that money can cost a lot of problems. Even husbands and wives fight it over regardless of the amount.

As for the consequences, no one can say for sure. We all know that US is very strict implementing their laws. I will advise NOT to engage yourself in ICO if you are a US citizen to avoid the hassle in the future, its not worth it.

Once you are US citizen you are not allowed and you are not allowed into ICO, you need not to invest, if you do, you are on your own, because there are reasons why these developers are preventing US citizen because most of these ICOs are security

IMO that would depend on what precautions has the company taken to avoid it. The buyer himself I think would not suffer any consequence, but the company would have to prove that has taken all reasonable measures to prevent it.

I think it's not necessary to break the law. You can then buy these coins on any exchange at the very beginning of sales. It's not necessary to risk for 10% or 20% of bonuses. Just when I see my country on the list of banned. To be honest, I feel terrible. As if I'm second grade.

IMO that would depend on what precautions has the company taken to avoid it. The buyer himself I think would not suffer any consequence, but the company would have to prove that has taken all reasonable measures to prevent it.
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I agree with this statement.  I think everyone is getting confused as to where the real risk is.  The buyer is not at risk.  The company offering the tokens for sale is.  The reason why USA residents are not allowed to participate is because the companies offering the tokens for sale do not want to violate any SEC laws.  Therefore, they employ KYC/geo-fencing techniques to limit their liability.  If the company honestly tries it's best to exclude USA buyers, then the SEC will most likely leave them alone even if USA buyers skirt the rules via VPN or false identities etc.

Why don't worths? The dact that there are many scam ICO's doesn't means anything, also you can never trust any ICO 100%. But this is a great way for creative and profitable investment.
We can use VPN anytime and everywhere, it's not a problem if we want to bypass something, even personal information (if it's not a bank directly).
Also I agree to pearlsome, just buy coins when they will be released, paying some % more worths for absolute safity.

Can you have a VPN and invest in the ICO? I am pretty sure that would work if you live in the United States.

This might work if the ICO is under an Ethereum smart contract and the ICO tokens are transferred immediately after a deposit to the address.  If the tokens are distributed at a later time such as after the ICO ends.  This could be an issue because you can always change the Ethereum address stating that your private keys have been exposed and you don't want the tokens to be sent there and since it's your ID, this will be approved.  

I have a working process to support your ICO verification without ME having access to your tokens and wallets.

Not all ICOs are restricted in the USA. As a matter of fact, Refereum ICO is coming up soon and they are marketing more to US citizens than anyone else. It is more difficult for a company to comply with US laws regarding ICOs so many just don't want to go through all the hoops. If an ICO is big enough in terms of scope of project and capital, it will most likely be available for investment even in the USA.

I believe the issue has to do with how the SEC treats your tokens.  If you have a "utility" token that allows donators future access to your software, then you may be able to get around SEC compliance.  However, if you are offering a token that resembles a security or an investment, then the SEC will probably come knocking on your door.

Personally, I will be optimistic about this and tell my thoughts. I believe that soon (in 2018) the government of the United States and other countries that are now negative about pritovalyutam change their mind and will simply regulate the purchase / sale and iso projects. Personally, I believe that participation in projects should be more protected by regulators than now, when anyone can draw a website and white paper and also create members of their team, then collect a couple of million dollars and disappear!

I think you will not be able to participate, you will simply return the money. Or alternatively you must have a friend with the necessary passport, which you can trust.

For everyone here that is speaking about having someone to do the KYC and pay them, im the man for the job !

My name is Pedro Gomes, i'm Portuguese and i participate in several Telegram Chats like Electrify Asia, BeeToken, etc. I help/work for people mostly in USA, North Korea and India, who wants to participate on ICO's or simply trades in websites like BitPanda. I live in Europe, so basically everything you can't do in this countrys, i can do here, beacause here that are no rules for cryptocoins and similar.

For exemple : i make registrations on ICO's, and when it comes to the part of KYC, all the documents are mine. But the investement, the wallet and the email is yours. If it is a BitPanda trade (for exemple, and it serves for buy and sell), the account is mine, but i give you the access, for you to make the trades with your credit card without i see that personal info and for you to have full freedom there.

If someone is interessed or knows someone who is, tell me and i give you more details ! PM  ;D

Just wait until the coins hit the exchanges. Many of them dip near or below ICO price at some point anyway.

Has anyone here actually gone through the trouble of using a VPN and a fake ID and can share their experience? I'm really interested as to what the process is like.

As far as I remember,  Gladius and Bobs repair are USA based ICOs.  So I really have no idea,  is it permitted to participate for USA citizens only in USA ICOs, or they completely can't participate in any ICO?

Participate in ICO with utility tokens

I heard that cryptocurrencies are banned in the US and everything connected with them, and all US citizens are prohibited from participating in the ICO, but despite this they are creating their ICO projects?

Not a US citizen here, but consider that even using a VPN you could be refused as a buyer. Every ICO requires documents and maybe proof of address too, so you won't be accepted much likely :'(

You can go around the country restriction for the ICO, by easily using a VPN, but the problem is that most of the ICOs require you an ID, and some of them even require to photograph that ID, because some people use ICOs for the wrong purpose like money laundering, you can make a fake ID to go around that but you have to be carefull of how much you are investing, if it is a small amount than you are fine, but more than 1000$ than that will raise suspicions.

I imagine it'd be a pretty lengthy and an expensive process (paying for a reliable VPN, for a fake ID, etc.) And makes me wonder if it's really worth it after all.

Are there any better alternatives for U.S. citizens?

Hello guy. Some ico on entertainment or betting will have no restrictions on this matter. Do not authenticate KYC, you need to use VPN or an account to buy token and you can Join directly and invest with us if you are interested in online gaming market. The online gaming market has great potential and occupies over 80 billion market capitalization. That promises a highly profitable investment.
Web:https://ico.truegame.io/ (https://ico.truegame.io/)
Telegram: https://t.me/truegame_chat
 (https://t.me/truegame_chat)

The best alternative ways to buy from the exchange site, Remember the price of new coin will be dumping after it has been listed on exchange site. The only best time to best them as fast as possible and sell them after the first jump will be happening. I don't see any other good alternative way from that. It looks like that's only the best way right now.

Generally speaking, if americans use KYC data from other countries, they can participate in ICO crowd-funding.
However, this is illegal, and ICO is currently under the supervision of various countries.

This is a difficult question to answer. Crypto is an anonymous investment system and can not exploit owner information so if someone runs around it and maybe the government cannot know who owns it and is entering the market.

In case of US retail investors participation in ICO, SEC could claim that there was a marketing of the ICO among US investors and according to The US Securities act, the offering is subject to prospectus filling and registration with SEC. In short, it is a very serious breach of US securities legislation.   

I know there are some ICO projects that have passed the USA regulation rules, such as the Abyss, you can join in this project with some limits. So I think sec still gives some chance to ICO projects.

I think that USA citizens don’t participate in ICO or do it in illegal way. In some situations it is better and easier to buy tokens during first few days after listing on exchanges. So you don’t need to send your identification data and you can see how much money project has raised, how the team works and other information.

Seems really bad for USA residents now to invest in ICO with KYC, hope government will change their minds in some closest future