France’s Finance Minister Plans ICO Regulations in Bid to Attract Crypto Startup

[MeSoCorny]

According to a recently published opinion piece, France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire revealed that the country plans on creating a legal framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) in a bid to become a leading ICO hub.

In the opinion piece, published on French website Numerama, Le Maire claims he asked former central bank official Jean-Pierre Landau to draft a proposal for a legislative framework on cryptocurrencies. In the article, he wrote:

“France has every interest in becoming the first major financial center to propose an ad hoc legislative framework for companies making an initial coin offering.”

Landau has the notorious nickname “Monsieur Bitcoin,” and was last month chosen to chair a cryptocurrency task force in France. The taskforce, as covered by CCN, is responsible for “proposing guidelines on the evolution of regulations.”

Le Maire further revealed that an action plan to be presented to the country’s government “in a few weeks” will propose seeing French market regulator Autorité des marches financiers (AMF) have the option to authorize companies to raise funds through ICOs, as long as they respect specific criteria that’s set on protecting investors.

The minister touted that blockchain technology will offer the country’s start-ups unprecedented opportunities, as they will be able to raise funds by issuing tokens. He said:

“A revolution is underway, of which bitcoin was only the precursor. The blockchain will offer new opportunities to our startups, for example with the Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) that will allow them to raise funds through ‘tokens (…)This promises to create a network of confidence without intermediaries, offers increased traceability and will boost economic efficiency.”

According to him, France has a tradition of financial innovation, and its new goal is to “enter the world of finance of the 21st century by guaranteeing all players the necessary security for their development.” In his op-ed his piece, Le Maire wrote that “[France] should not miss out on the blockchain revolution.”

The country, along with Germany, notably called for cryptocurrencies to be discussed at G20. During the summit, in Buenos Aires, Argentina Le Maire highlighted the importance of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The G20 communique revealed a crackdown on cryptocurrencies may not occur, although regulation proposals are set to come by July.

https://www.ccn.com/frances-finance-minister-plans-ico-regulations-in-bid-to-attract-crypto-startups/

[omnik]

I've seen a lot of people are talking about that. It seems the  regulation will be every ico developer must register its project to get a license from AFAC. I thought that was easy to understand and the ico issuer must give guarantee to the investors. Another friendly country for crypto is incoming.

[AlekSandRAx]

That's great news. That means France will provide legit projects when properly regulated. I hope they succeed and encourage other countries to follow.

[D.VAN77]

The problem is that crypto is still in a wild wild west and although a couple of years ago everything was happening on the small scale right now everyone seems to be getting on the hype. Unfortunately, it leads to a lot of scams so it's good to regulate crypto - I think that there will be more and more smaller countries jumping in to be crypto-friendly. It's the big assholes (like China and US) that are gonna see it as a threat. European countries will more likely want to attract talent by being receptive to crypto.

[epidose]

That's really interesting, and particularly neat that they've asked for crypto's to be on the table for discussion at G20; hopefully more countries start following suit and thinking/planning on how they might look at ICO regulations.

[vv181]

Le Maire further revealed that an action plan to be presented to the country’s government “in a few weeks” will propose seeing French market regulator Autorité des marches financiers (AMF) have the option to authorize companies to raise funds through ICOs, as long as they respect specific criteria that’s set on protecting investors.

I'm sure the criteria is KYC verification. Its partly bad for cryptocurrencies since most of the cryptocurrencies users are aiming for privacy and anonymity.

[radar19]

This is very good news. When crycurrency become completely legal investors will have much more garanties that their money are safe.

[13abyknight]

Phew! Finally a country got in the right mindset of being called as an 'ICO' or startup hub based on cryptocurrencies. This move will definitely provoke more EU nations to change their perspective towards opening up to ICOs, making a jurisdictional framework which govern the rules of how the entire process is carried out in a hassle free method, while benefiting both the investors as well as the project.

[tyuner4]

This is good news for France to regulate ICO instead of banning it. With the need to obtain license and having a guarantee give investors confidence in investing.

[IgorShumilo]

This is tremendous news, I hope France will make the right adjustment. I am very glad that regulators do not want to ban, but want to understand and try to make convenient regulation. But as it was said above, the only thing that I see right now is the "Know your customer" test, and I do not think this is a problem) I do not want to hide from someone and do not mind paying taxes from my income, but a reasonable percentage!

[MeSoCorny]

Phew! Finally a country got in the right mindset of being called as an 'ICO' or startup hub based on cryptocurrencies. This move will definitely provoke more EU nations to change their perspective towards opening up to ICOs, making a jurisdictional framework which govern the rules of how the entire process is carried out in a hassle free method, while benefiting both the investors as well as the project.

Sadly here in the United States our politicians are all bought and paid for by the banking cartels. I won't hold my breath that the Jamie Dimon's of the banking industry will help usher in the age of digital currency until every other country has beaten us to it. Sad because we used to be at the forefront of every new innovation and discovery. 

[Classica35]

This is a good development. This is might instigate other countries to have the right perspective towards cryptocurrency and blockchain. As soon as France lunches this ICO i believe so many investors will come and and I know that the project with no doubt will be legit, because France will do all things possible to protect their image. They will also work towards making the project a long lasting one.

[awazieik]

According to a recently published opinion piece, France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire revealed that the country plans on creating a legal framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) in a bid to become a leading ICO hub.

In the opinion piece, published on French website Numerama, Le Maire claims he asked former central bank official Jean-Pierre Landau to draft a proposal for a legislative framework on cryptocurrencies. In the article, he wrote:

“France has every interest in becoming the first major financial center to propose an ad hoc legislative framework for companies making an initial coin offering.”

Landau has the notorious nickname “Monsieur Bitcoin,” and was last month chosen to chair a cryptocurrency task force in France. The taskforce, as covered by CCN, is responsible for “proposing guidelines on the evolution of regulations.”

Le Maire further revealed that an action plan to be presented to the country’s government “in a few weeks” will propose seeing French market regulator Autorité des marches financiers (AMF) have the option to authorize companies to raise funds through ICOs, as long as they respect specific criteria that’s set on protecting investors.

The minister touted that blockchain technology will offer the country’s start-ups unprecedented opportunities, as they will be able to raise funds by issuing tokens. He said:

“A revolution is underway, of which bitcoin was only the precursor. The blockchain will offer new opportunities to our startups, for example with the Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) that will allow them to raise funds through ‘tokens (…)This promises to create a network of confidence without intermediaries, offers increased traceability and will boost economic efficiency.”

According to him, France has a tradition of financial innovation, and its new goal is to “enter the world of finance of the 21st century by guaranteeing all players the necessary security for their development.” In his op-ed his piece, Le Maire wrote that “[France] should not miss out on the blockchain revolution.”

The country, along with Germany, notably called for cryptocurrencies to be discussed at G20. During the summit, in Buenos Aires, Argentina Le Maire highlighted the importance of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The G20 communique revealed a crackdown on cryptocurrencies may not occur, although regulation proposals are set to come by July.

https://www.ccn.com/frances-finance-minister-plans-ico-regulations-in-bid-to-attract-crypto-startups/

Despite the fire and brimstone spit forth by the G20 about its thought on Cryptocurrencies, eventually they had no choice than to study the industry rather than try to take it out. Crytocurrency is here to stay and they are very much aware about how much these coins are helping people especially in developing countries. So i am not surprised of their decision.

[chukaday]

If this article implies that they will not seek out more KYC and AML of customers, then good I am all for it. If they are seeking more KYC and AML of projects, then that also is brilliant. Anything short of that, or increasing the amount of KYC on investing customers is foolish and short-sighted.

[epidose]

> Landau has the notorious nickname “Monsieur Bitcoin,”

That's hilarious. Seriously though, while this is good news, it'll just have to remain speculation until anyone see's what exactly this means: authorize companies to raise funds through ICOs, as long as they respect specific criteria that’s set on protecting investors.

Hopefully we see regulations that help ICO bound companies as well as protect investors, but it'll be a shame if they just put in some ridiculous requirements in place that don't really help anyone.

[jacquelinecr]

I'm not entirely sure this is a positive step for the crypto community. They might end up striping down everything that attracted investors in crypto on the first place in order to regulate it.