CANADA to regulate ICO. RUSSIA is next?

[cdb1690]

Recently, several jurisdictions have taken steps to impose requirements on cryptocurrency exchanges, including with respect to identity verification, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and recordkeeping.

I really hope that by the time governments start to go after centralized exchanges with no KYC/AML requirements, decentralized exchanges will up an running.

Also, this is not only about institutional investors. If I understand the staff notice correctly, companies doing ICOs are required to collect huge amount of personal information about individual investors as well.

Individuals or businesses that meet the business trigger must meet fundamental obligations to investors, including know-your-client (KYC) and suitability. Collecting little to no information on investors, for example only names, email addresses and/or IP addresses would not be sufficient to meet this obligation.

One note for all the people who are willing to trade anonymity for a little bit of security (i.e. "regulation is good as it weeds out scammers" guys): are you really willing to provide your real personal information to random startups on internet with no track record whatsoever?

This is also interesting part

Allowing coins/tokens that are securities issued as part of an ICO/ITO to trade on these cryptocurrency exchanges may also place the business issuing the coins/tokens offside securities laws. For example, the resale of coins/tokens that are securities will be subject to restrictions on secondary trading.

[kolap]

China is next. I'm curious about the outcome, because China's market of ICOs is very big and promising.

Yes, China's market is huge! I can't wait when the Chinese starting to use crypto as way of creating the ICOs is the norm. Then I would see the Chinese government would step in.

[Jian Yang]

China is next. I'm curious about the outcome, because China's market of ICOs is very big and promising.

Yes, China's market is huge! I can't wait when the Chinese starting to use crypto as way of creating the ICOs is the norm. Then I would see the Chinese government would step in.

I think, EU will be faster in accepting cryptocurrencies regulations than China.

[Erowind]

Quick question for everyone. I'm not an accredited investor and I'm a US citizen, is it illegal for me to invest in ICOS? And if it is, is it illegal for me to buy coins that are still in the ICO phase on an exchange--for example, EOS--instead of from the dev team?

[ukloon]

How about India? There is growing interest in that country and a new exchange that recently opened up - Bitbay. Perhaps they will regulate ICOs as well when things start moving over there.

[ahmadakbari]

If a person in United states or Canada, Invest in an ICO, then what will happen? How governments can prosecute those who have invested in ICOs?

[zekk]

I think regulation is right around the corner for most countrys to be honest. I don't think regulation will effect anything very much. There has been numerous talks in Denmark to regulate Bitcoin - but for now there isn't any, and in fact it is totally tax free to payout bitcoin.

[covfefe_]

ICOs as such should be regulated.
ICO is not a decentralised currency.
They are issued by a real physical company/institution and should comply to the law of nation it belongs to.

[mohucool]

Soon many countries will follow the suit as there is no investor protection in ICO and there are many scams going.

[CryptoBagHolder]

So what does that mean for Canadian/Americans holding crypto on centralized exchanges?  Does that mean the government will come in and shut them down, in turn people would lose their coinage??  I thought the point of crypto currency is to get away from the centralization of banks/governments!! 

[artmen007]

While here at the government level want to mine BITCOIN and make a farm. Here, the government still found a way out of the crisis.. The whole country will be mine to do ICO...

[Jian Yang]

ICOs as such should be regulated.
ICO is not a decentralised currency.
They are issued by a real physical company/institution and should comply to the law of nation it belongs to.

If so, don`t you think we get the same limitations as with IPO? ICO doesn`t have borders, therefore for ICO should be a consensus among many countries in order to keep the progress and protect unqualified investors.

[muenze]

it would probably get regulated about anywhere sooner or later.

which has disadvantages, but also advantages. like it might become harder for scamcoins.

[dieselmeister]

  how to control ICO. people can say it's premine and want sell token

[qiwoman2]

If regulation of ICOS, means more consumer protection against scams, then I am all for it. I wouldn't like a blanket ban on all ICOS because many are innovative and ground breaking technological projects. To stifle innovation would be a terrible idea, especially with science and technology need a nice cash injection and are publicly mostly underfunded.

[ImHash]

First of all I wouldn't go near any ICO if they require my documents, people come to crypto for the decentralization nature of it, now if they see not even here they are free of governments I wonder what happens to decentralized system? if any ICO asked for documents then they are lying about being decentralized and should be avoided if they are claiming to be free of regulations which is what crypto is promising people to be.

[tokyoghetto]

wait till they pull the "accredited investor" bullshit so that only the wealthy can participate and the poor stay poor. 

[gyu22]

Ten tips about Canadian regulation of ICOs, CSA Staff Notice 46-307.

1. Regulators will treat each token using a case-by-case approach
2. Substance will trump form when it comes to ICOs
3. The CSA thinks many ICOs are securities offerings aimed at retail investors
4. The existing legal framework for securities will be applied: Pacific Coin
5. The Regulated System (or why white papers aren’t sufficient disclosure under Canadian securities law)
6. There are, can be civil as well as regulatory consequences for non-compliance
7. Cryptocurrency investment funds ought to follow the rules for funds too
8. Some token sales are securities offerings, and some token-securities are also derivatives
9. Resale restrictions need to be considered for tokens that are securities
10. The regulatory focus has shifted from crypto investment risks to tokens as securities

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/op-ed-planning-ico-canada-here-are-10-regulatory-points-ponder/

[mistercoin]

There is another big step towards market regulation. Canada following US and Singapore claims that any coin during ICO/ITO to be security. Staff Notice 46-307 issued by Canadian Securities Administrators  reveals that many of the digital tokens investigated by regulators in Canada fall under the definition of a security, thereby triggering a range of legal requirements.

This means that Canada closed their boarders to almost all ICO campaigns. Will it affect behavior of Canadian cryptoenthusiasts? (Opinion of Canadian and US residents are highly appreciated).

What country is next to regulate ICO?

As a canadian, I don't personally feel threatened by this. Governments will always try and stick their noses into things they do not or cannot fully understand. I think it would be quite hard for our government to enforce any type of regulation imposed onto ICO's. I think the big thing that would be affected by it if it does ever pass into law, would be the exchanges that host the ICO/IPO's. Look at New York and how the laws passed by them on cryptocurrency (Bitlicense I believe it's called) have affected the exchanges and the users within New york. Some have gone as far as IP blocking NYC citizens from using their exchanges, or a warning page agreeing that you are not living in the state.

Naturally this doesn't really affect them too much, VPN's and other loopholes/means to access and use the platforms exist, but I think the point is that world governments are starting to notice us, and if they are starting to place regulations around buying and selling, ICO's/IPO's, etc., then imagine another 5 years down the road. I think for now, there is not much to worry about, but in time we could face real problems. Governments everywhere have a tendency to get their greasy fingers into stuff they shouldn't...

Mistercoin--

[vfrcbv91]

This is only the beginning of large-scale regulation blockchain in the world as we would like - but sooner or later it was bound to happen.