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Russian ICOs have raised a total of $300 million funds in 2017, but half of them went to pyramid schemes, according to The Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB). The association believes Russian projects are able to attract $1-1.5 billion USD in 2018 but they need to become more trustworthy. Last year, the Russians lost $150 million due to investments in unscrupulous ICOs. RACIB has announced its intention to develop guidelines for ICOs in Russia hoping to distinguish between legitimate projects from fraud schemes and financial pyramids. According to the suggested guidelines ICOs should be judged by several criteria, including the credibility of its team members, its business plan and the viability of its product.

 :o :o :o
have you anytime take part of this ICO's types?

Proof is here

 :D Yes, I was in this ICO))
There were many information about scam ico, so, now, I didn't put money in some scam :D

Oh great now they have got the official guideline to choose the best ICO of 2018, thats just amazing for the Russian people even after loosing millions of dollars in scam! My government's next step was to shut down the crypto currency trade as soon as there was scam over million dollar. Can you imagine that one.  ::)

Anyway article is just giving info of what you just said here and not much detailing but that is still believable as sources looks targeted. Its good that Russia is taking some steps forward to solve the problems regarding the crypto, they surely going to be the finest country to operate the crypto's after Japan.

Thank you, yes, i agree with that, but it is thoughts to make cryptocurrency legal in Russia now...
So, we will see, how is going that  :)
PS Now i will thinking more at first about investing in Russian project... Some of them seems to me not russian, cause made very good, but some of them .... ::) ::) ::)

The problem of regulating the ICO process has matured and overhauled for a long time. State bodies and public organizations needed to deal with ICO regulation for a long time to get rid of fraudulent ICO projects and protect the rights of investors. Slowness in this issue from the state just surprises. Maybe, the states hope to show citizens that crypto currency is a fraud and it should not be carried away. Also, states are in no hurry to legalize the crypto currency so that citizens have the opportunity to apply for the protection of their rights in state bodies.

I really do not think that this is an exception, to me this seems rather to be the rule, while I will like for the icos to be more successful at the same time we need to consider that many of them are scams that are in the market just to fool investors this is why many people are simply giving up on icos and I investing most of their money in the top coins of the market and to be honest I cannot blame them.

The craziness of ICOs can be judged from the fact that most of them are based out of East European countries or Russia. Vitalik Buterin may have started it all with the best of intentions but his brethren seem to have no interest in being part of an honorable vision. The lax regulations and law & order in these countries must be the reason that the scammers get away with relative ease. After this, only those people invest in ICOs who hope to flip those tokens for easy gains as soon as they are listed. The supposed promise of bringing VC-level opportunity to small investors is still a pipe dream.

That may well be the reason. The authorities realize that these scam ICOs are a self goal on the cryptocurrencies. What is ironic is that the people who are quick to question the "worthiness of corrupt politicians to rule us" are the first one to find ways to scam others as well as look upto the government to save them rather than taking responsibility and being vigilant themselves.

The ICO scammers used all their funds to invest in a pyramid scheme to be scammed themselves? Maybe thats really their exit scheme lol. The pyramid scheme might also be controlled by the ICO scammers too as a way to make all of us believe that they lost the funds.

People believe in god and thought, if they really trust site, which tell "You can received 15% from your depo per day", it is not HYip, it is just God's grace, and "i am mr. Lucky" :P
it is not ICO scams, it is people, who hope for a miracle.

that is also my view.
the altcoin scene has always been a way for certain type of people to make money from gullibility of the kids with money in crypto-space. the form of it changes but the principle is always the same. premine, ICO, forks of bitcoin and others,... they are all the same.

Yep, thank you  ;)

Well I would say this is the exact reason why I think we need regulation in crypto. Let's face it, there are a lot of corrupt people out there, that wouldn't hesitate to scam you and still all your money, and they wouldn't even lose their sleep over it. There are also plenty of people with the desire of getting rich without having to do a thing (probably one of the reason why lotteries and gambling are so popular). These things combined open space for what the OP described.

If there is some kind of regulation that ICOs need to follow through in order to stay legit then pure scams would have a harder time coming through. More money would probably come into the markets as well. And of course people could also lose money in the process, because ICOs are risky investments, but at least the typical ponzi scams would be over, because they would never go through a "verification process".

Russia is just a proven example of the current situation with icos. While there have already been some very successful examples, as a research presented on merkle.com states that 81% of ICO scam people and only 8% of projects make it to solid exchanges. This situation is very unfortunate and casts a shadow not only on ICOs, but on the cryptocurrencies' reputaton in general. Perhaps, some regulation from the governments should be made for the projects to pass at least minimal evaluation. The forum could conduct the same policy by forbidding to make ANN threads for the ICOs which don't have a website, whitepaper, team and roadmap stated.

That is why icos projects need to be regulated and we may need to work hard to make governments set up a moderate regulating laws. If all this remaining in any of the recognized projects I believe those projects could have been doing better than what we are seeing now. People are ready to invest into cryptocurrencies no doubt but they also need to be sure they investment are safe.

What is this? Short news with no proof?
Where that data come from?

It might be true, but if they invest into scam then its their own fault for not learning

While I agree with the first part of your message it might be also worth remembering there's no such thing as 100% investment :)

 :o :o

The scammers have discovered the gold mine. it's unbelievable how much money these scammers steal with these ICO's, but this is because so many people do not question it before investing, they do not investigate before investing, and since ICO's are unregulated the situation gets worse. the china begin to chase the ICO's, I think at least here we have to thank China because the ICO's were growing rampantly were forced to reduce their growth speed. So now the Russians want to develop guidelines, I think they need regulation, only regulation will reduce the scam ICO

A guideline for a new ICO is necessary throughout this platform because the amount of money being raised and that too people are investing in it because of the trust bestowed upon these projects and the developers and we have already seen many scams in the market and we need to get rid of these scammers and for that a proper regulation in ICO in necessary to counter these scams, so that the wild west for the ICO market will end.

Pyramiding Scheme? I thought only on free airdrops could happen this kind of event like invite someone on the telegram and earn additional 100 token, and additional 150 token for another two members that join and apply for the airdrop and send your code something like this?

I think it also happen same with my country wherein there are group who promise double income of anybody who will put their money on them and this group suddenly disappear after accumulating billions of money? Let me guess victims are those people who wants to earn on the most easiest way... tsk, they never learn from the news.

ICOs are for the new.

I wouldn't be surprised if half or three-quarters of all ICOs were enablers or pyramid schemes themselves.

You should give any thought to an ICO that doesn't have a real utility to the marketplace, ideally the market that isn't already involved in cryptocurrency. Any ICO has a risk of being set up for theft, that's why you need to do your due diligence.

Russia is a famous pyramid selling country, once infamous MMM ponzi scheme fooled a lot of people!

Now they're using blockchain technology to camouflage a ponzi scheme!

That's why digital encryption needs to be regulated!

The question is what are they doing about it? Today we blame and conclude that most of the ICOs are scams while the association decides to take the statistics about the amount that went to scammers and the other portion that went to legitimate project without really taking decisive actions about stopping reoccurrence and in 2018 they will come with another statistics about how the same thing has happened again.

All of the suggestions they have there above on determining the right ICO to invest are just ways to make the scammers smarter because most investors that fall victims of those scam ICOs are average internet users that probably the only means of searching for any information on the internet is through Google and the scammers put it there for them to be trusted. Decisive actions that I expect would be forming a body of volunteers that analyse ICOs based on information that cannot be gotten and ranking is with recommendations with that there is repository of information on investment decisions.

I don't know if these stats are actually accurate or not, but it wouldn't surprise me.

There were indeed a lot of panzi or pyramid schemes that just hid under the cryptocurrency brand during the past few years. Based on my personal experience, there were definitely a lot of people who put money in these so called "investments".

Again, this is where government regulation on crypto could actually potentially be helpful. To weed out these scam programs and educate the public. I have no problems against that. But it's when they deny access to crypto altogether using their regulatory powers that it becomes unacceptable.

The risk of losing money is very high. All ICO projects analyze the signs of the financial pyramid. Investing in ICO is like playing roulette. You can multiply the capital or lose the investment! Accept this as a fact and decide how much you are reckless.

About the safety of investments in the ICO does not cease to go talk. And this work is time-consuming, because the legal definition of ICO is quite difficult. China has taken drastic measures, prohibiting the financing of ICO. In the United States financial market regulator considers that the tokens obtained investors in Exchange for their contribution, are considered securities, and subject to the requirements of the Federal law on promotions. In Europe, the question is only beginning to be discussed. France's financial markets regulator announced that he is working on establishing the legal framework for the ICO. It is intended that the regulator will be able to introduce a bill by the end of the year. He wants to protect investors without imposing many restrictions at the same time, to continue to stimulate the development of innovative projects. It remains to wait.

At the same time, the Russian government tries to regulate the market at every possible way.
A possible introduction of administrative and criminal responsibility for the conversion of any cryptocurrency (including bitcoins) into the ruble equivalent has already been repeatedly discussed in the Russian press.
Along with the financial pyramids, these laws also refer to cryptocurrencies as tools for creating scam schemes.
I would say that it's the mentality of Russians - earn everything now and here without paying any attention to long-term trust of investors.

I think the article is a bit wrong:


So, out of 300 millions half of it has been lost in ponzi schemes and fabulous ICOs, while the other half of 150 millions is invested in ICOs that are going to zero during this year  ;D.

Also this:
Should be:

The association of shills believes that the Russian people can be fleeced for another 1 to 1.5 billion this year.  ::)


Bitconnect, caugh cough...bitconnect
Everyone knew it was a ponzi, thousands said it, yet....

It's some interesting statistics for sure.

But of course, I can't say that I'm that surprised based on the amount of people that were flooding to a certain ponzi scheme last year. I makes me wonder how many people actually participate in a ponzi scheme willingly, and knowingly? Probably a lot.

These statistics are probably based off known ponzi schemes as well, the unknown ones that haven't bursted yet would contribute greatly to the figure.

Regulation in ICOs from governments to prevent these scams from collecting money could definitely legitimise the whole concept of it a lot more, imho.

many russian projects are scam that's why I try not to participate in russian ICOs and bounty campaigns - it's just a waste of money and time.

I bypass the bounty of the campaign of Russian developers and their ICO projects. They make them stupid on purpose "to make money" and throw everyone who believes in them  8)

I read the draft of the Russian law on the regulation of ICO and I liked it. If it is adopted, there is no chance that such ICO projects will remain fraudulent. There everything is very well thought out and every step of the ICO team will be monitored by the relevant state authorities, and all operations with crypto currency must pass exclusively through banks. Even after the collection of funds, state bodies will monitor the targeted use of this money. Before. how to register ICO, the team on the corresponding bank account must have a very large amount in millions of rubles, which will rule out a frivolous attitude towards such projects. In general, it would be nice if other states use this experience of Russia in working out the idea of ​​such a bill. Fraud in the ICO would not exist at all.

Russia's cryptocurrency market lacks effective supervision! The Russian government needs to establish regulations to protect the rights of investment!
Many Russian Ponzi schemes in Russia wear scams in ICO's coat!

Another sad story in cryptocurrency. As of now, we will not differentiate the genuine ICO to the fake one. Russia is an industrial country and many ICOs have Russian developers. Therefore, it is usual for a Russian project to become successful but because of this event, I conclude that scammers don't select a time and place where they will make their operation. I think that every country should have regulatory or policy about these upcoming ICOs so that, investors will avoid a fraudulent project like this.