$257 Million: Filecoin Breaks All-Time Record for ICO Funding

[bbc.reporter]

Are the bans and warnings on ICOs gravely serious? If it is, then why are the known venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz still investing millions in ICOs?

Is the Chinese, Russian, US governments and others giving these warnings because they are scared people can fund themselves without their permission and authority?



Filecoin's ICO, which began on August 10, quickly garnered millions in investment via CoinList, a joint project between Filecoin developer Protocol Labs and startup investment platform AngelList. That launch day was notable both for the large influx of purchases of Simple Agreements for Future Tokens, or SAFTs (effectively claims on tokens once the Filecoin network goes live), as well as the technology issues that quickly sprouted as accredited investors swamped the CoinList website.

Today, the ICO ended with approximately $205.8 million raised, a figure that adds to the $52 million collected in a presale that included Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, among others.

Read the full article https://www.coindesk.com/257-million-filecoin-breaks-time-record-ico-funding/

[Hyperme.sh]

Are the bans and warnings on ICOs gravely serious? If it is, then why are the known venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz still investing millions in ICOs?

Is the Chinese, Russian, US governments and others giving these warnings because they are scared people can fund themselves without their permission and authority?

You seem to habitually fail to pay attention to important details.

That ICO began on August 10, and only $3 million was raised in past 3 days since ICO bad news.

…as accredited investors swamped the CoinList website

It is legal ICO issuance with proper disclosures and was sold only to accredited investors. It is not these scammy ICOs we’ve been seeing that are not correctly issued under appropriate exemption from registration.

More importantly, even legal token issuance will mean those tokens are restricted securities that can only be sold on regulated exchanges. They can’t be traded decentralized and thus are not a cryptocurrency.

More details:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2146838.msg21616747#msg21616747
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2156492.msg21615589#msg21615589

[sjbi]

Are the bans and warnings on ICOs gravely serious? If it is, then why are the known venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz still investing millions in ICOs?

Is the Chinese, Russian, US governments and others giving these warnings because they are scared people can fund themselves without their permission and authority?

You seem to habitually fail to pay attention to important details.

That ICO began on August 10, and only $3 million was raised in past 3 days since ICO bad news.

…as accredited investors swamped the CoinList website

It is legal ICO issuance with proper disclosures and was sold only to accredited investors. It is not these scammy ICOs we’ve been seeing that are not correctly issued under appropriate exemption from registration.

More importantly, even legal token issuance will mean those tokens are restricted securities that can only be sold on regulated exchanges. They can’t be traded decentralized and thus are not a cryptocurrency.

More details:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2146838.msg21616747#msg21616747

The message is clear, legit companies or project would prosper while the scammy ICOs won't get anything.
Even the countries currently banning ICO are making rules for investment.

[StockBet.com]

There are already three projects doing the same or similar thing: Siacoin, Storj and Maidsafe.

I guess Filecoin investors never of heard of them or don't think much of them.

[TheJuice]

Didn't EOS raise some ridiculous amount? Or am I mis remembering? I know they had a long tail to their ICO.

[StockBet.com]

Didn't EOS raise some ridiculous amount? Or am I mis remembering? I know they had a long tail to their ICO.

Last time I checked was about a week ago and I think they've raised $230 million so far.

[Hyperme.sh]

There are already three projects doing the same or similar thing: Siacoin, Storj and Maidsafe.

I guess Filecoin investors never of heard of them or don't think much of them.

I think perhaps Filecoin is the first legitimate ICO legally issued to accredited investors on a crowd equity platform, thus it was probably snapped up and considered to be more professional and legitimate.

Didn't EOS raise some ridiculous amount? Or am I mis remembering? I know they had a long tail to their ICO.

Last time I checked was about a week ago and I think they've raised $230 million so far.

EOS Platform tokens are securities and very likely they have been illegal issued to USA non-accredited investors. I wouldn’t touch that hot potato. Could get delisted by the SEC and become illegal to trade.

Meaning if you are trading EOS Platform tokens, you may be committing a crime. This could come back to haunt you some years from now, when the regulators get around to it.

With all die respect, $3,000,000 in 2 days is still a lot of money. That is nothing to frown over or look down upon, as you make it seem like it isn't a lot or something. Sure, it might be less than they were making, but it isn't exactly peanuts either.

It was only sold to accredited investors. The token can not be traded. It is a restricted security.

Filecoin’s fundraising is not an ICO, in terms of what people around here think an ICO is.

[skyline247]

Are the bans and warnings on ICOs gravely serious? If it is, then why are the known venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz still investing millions in ICOs?

Is the Chinese, Russian, US governments and others giving these warnings because they are scared people can fund themselves without their permission and authority?

You seem to habitually fail to pay attention to important details.

That ICO began on August 10, and only $3 million was raised in past 3 days since ICO bad news.

…as accredited investors swamped the CoinList website

It is legal ICO issuance with proper disclosures and was sold only to accredited investors. It is not these scammy ICOs we’ve been seeing that are not correctly issued under appropriate exemption from registration.

More importantly, even legal token issuance will mean those tokens are restricted securities that can only be sold on regulated exchanges. They can’t be traded decentralized and thus are not a cryptocurrency.

More details:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2146838.msg21616747#msg21616747
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2156492.msg21615589#msg21615589

With all die respect, $3,000,000 in 2 days is still a lot of money. That is nothing to frown over or look down upon, as you make it seem like it isn't a lot or something. Sure, it might be less than they were making, but it isn't exactly peanuts either.

[robeth]

There are already three projects doing the same or similar thing: Siacoin, Storj and Maidsafe.

I guess Filecoin investors never of heard of them or don't think much of them.

Similar to savory coins that can be uploaded store in the cloud but is it as good as a coin that has a combination of digital money and data storage, because it uses a sharing system to many places..

[aaroc90]

There are already three projects doing the same or similar thing: Siacoin, Storj and Maidsafe.

I guess Filecoin investors never of heard of them or don't think much of them.

what are the advantages of filecoin over projects like siacoin?

from the funding performance alone you would have to assume that filecoin is ALOT better but is it?

[xandriel]

first time hear about this ICO. does this ICO have thread on bitcointalk

[mummybtc]

first time hear about this ICO. does this ICO have thread on bitcointalk

I don't think they care much about their presence on this forum, it is one of the most anticipated ICO in the space, good team and well funded by VCs, as you can see they have no issue raising significant amount of fund in the crowded ICO market

[3months18w]

Government can't stop the development of blockchains , is $257 million  a new record for ico now ?Congratulations to Filecoin.

[StockBet.com]

I think perhaps Filecoin is the first legitimate ICO legally issued to accredited investors on a crowd equity platform, thus it was probably snapped up and considered to be more professional and legitimate.

Regulators have flawed logic with regards to accredited investors (wealthier people). They think accredited investors are better investors. That is not true quite often and not true most of the time when it comes to technology.  Doctors and dentists do not know how to invest.  Surviving spouses may know nothing about business.  Celebrities are horrible investors. Real estate developers know less about technology than a basement dweller geek.

Regulators allow accredited investors to invest because regulators think that accredited investors can handle the loss.  This logic is flawed as well.  If a 65 year old, retired accredited investor loses 100% of his net worth, the rest of his life is screwed.  If a 20 year old, basement dweller geek loses 100% of his net worth, it's not that serious.

EOS Platform tokens are securities and very likely they have been illegal issued to USA non-accredited investors. I wouldn’t touch that hot potato. Could get delisted by the SEC and become illegal to trade.

Meaning if you are trading EOS Platform tokens, you may be committing a crime. This could come back to haunt you some years from now, when the regulators get around to it.

EOS rejected users with US IP addresses and forced users to acknowledge that they read the Purchase Agreement, which stated that US persons are not allowed to purchase.  I don't know if this will protect them sufficiently, but they did not solicit accredited or non-accredited investors from the U.S.

[Hyperme.sh]

I think perhaps Filecoin is the first legitimate ICO legally issued to accredited investors on a crowd equity platform, thus it was probably snapped up and considered to be more professional and legitimate.

Regulators have flawed logic with regards to accredited investors (wealthier people). They think accredited investors are better investors. That is not true quite often and not true most of the time when it comes to technology.

Just because you say so? Look at all the worthless ICO scams that people in our crypto ecosystem speculate on.

The main point is not that accredited investors are more astute, but that it limits the speculation on speculating about greater fools. The goal is all about limiting the liquidity (aka pumps) of scams. Because the securities are restricted and can’t be resold and traded, not until an IPO and restricted to trading on regulated exchanges. All these factors throttle the level of extremely wasteful and potentially catastrophic bubble/mania speculation nonsense that we see proliferating now in crypto.

Filecoin’s disadvantage is that with the tokens being issued as securities, they are restricted and can’t be traded on exchanges now and eventually after being registered then can only trade on registered exchanges and can never be spent P2P as a cryptocurrency. IOW, FIlecoin’s tokens aren’t a cryptocurrency.

ICOs are securities. And they will all become delisted and illegal to trade in the future, as the regulators in the nations slowly ramp up their enforcement actions.

Additionally those who are trading ICOs now, are doing illegal trading.

Those fools in our ecosystem are going to get their fingertips burned up to their armpits over time, as the regulators clawback, confiscate bank accounts, assets, and put people in jail. Mark my word.

Also legal securities issuance is not limited to accredited investors. There is crowdfunded equity now.

EOS Platform tokens are securities and very likely they have been illegal issued to USA non-accredited investors. I wouldn’t touch that hot potato. Could get delisted by the SEC and become illegal to trade.

Meaning if you are trading EOS Platform tokens, you may be committing a crime. This could come back to haunt you some years from now, when the regulators get around to it.

EOS rejected users with US IP addresses and forced users to acknowledge that they read the Purchase Agreement, which stated that US persons are not allowed to purchase.  I don't know if this will protect them sufficiently, but they did not solicit accredited or non-accredited investors from the U.S.

We have multiple threads on this forum instructing investors how to bypass the IP address restriction by employing a VPN.

Also the SEC regulations apply to US persons, even when they are traveling abroad, thus IP address limitation is not sufficient by itself.

One of the requirements which EOS did not do is putting the ICO offering behind a firewall and allowing investors to self-certify that they are accredited is not sufficient:

http://archive.is/VWZCY

And even if EOS did comply with all those recommendations, that would only potentially absolve the culpability of the issuers to criminal and civil punishment. The tokens would still be classified as securities in any case. And securities have the problems listed above in bolded text.

Also the USA is not the only country that will be increasing their enforcement. EOS is going to be attacked by the regulators from numerous countries. Daniel Larimer has committed a very grave error. And anyone buying and trading EOS Platform tokens is committing a grave error that could come back to haunt them in the future. As of January 2017, the G20 countries have a cooperation agreement on financial crimes, taxation, and regulation. They will cooperate with each other on prosecuting those who have violated regulations in each nation-state. Those who offer securities willynilly as EOS and other ICOs have done, are going to be in a hell hole of trouble and woe. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

Readers do not destroy yourselves by following the stupid herd. Consult an attorney and stop incriminating yourselves by being involved with illegal trading of securities.

Disclaimer: IANAL. This is not legal advice.

[marketprice]

Not serious at all, Russia just came out with support, China ban is temporary. Space will hit $1T+ Market Cap next year.

[Hyperme.sh]

Not serious at all, Russia just came out with support, China ban is temporary. Space will hit $1T+ Market Cap next year.

You’re lying.

All these regulators in all the major nations will eventually force ICOs into regulated (or exempted) securities issuance, similar to Filecoin’s issuance. But the problem with that, is that the tokens issued as securities are then not freely tradeable.

All of those who are trading ICO-issued tokens now, are committing illegal trading. Proof-of-work issued tokens are not securities and thus not illegal to trade (this does not include scam issuance via instamines and sneaky/stealth mines).

Clawbacks, prosecutions, fines, and jail time are coming. Mark my word.

Seriously folks. Stop incriminating yourselves. Clean up your act now, so maybe the regulators will be lenient on you because at least you reformed yourself.

[eaLiTy]

All these regulators in all the major nations will eventually force ICOs into regulated (or exempted) securities issuance, similar to Filecoin’s issuance. But the problem with that, is that the tokens issued as securities are then not freely tradeable.

All of those who are trading ICO-issued tokens now, are committing illegal trading. Proof-of-work issued tokens are not securities and thus not illegal to trade (this does not include scam issuance via instamines and sneaky/stealth mines).

Clawbacks, prosecutions, fines, and jail time are coming. Mark my word.

Seriously folks. Stop incriminating yourselves. Clean up your act now, so maybe the regulators will be lenient on you because at least you reformed yourself.

If a country bans these form of investments then they could charge the investors with money laundering and terrorism charges ,other than that expect these kind of rules and regulations because these ICO's are making millions of dollars without any obligation and it is time that the government disrupt this free flow of money and things might get tough in the future.

[Hyperme.sh]

All these regulators in all the major nations will eventually force ICOs into regulated (or exempted) securities issuance, similar to Filecoin’s issuance. But the problem with that, is that the tokens issued as securities are then not freely tradeable.

All of those who are trading ICO-issued tokens now, are committing illegal trading. Proof-of-work issued tokens are not securities and thus not illegal to trade (this does not include scam issuance via instamines and sneaky/stealth mines).

Clawbacks, prosecutions, fines, and jail time are coming. Mark my word.

Seriously folks. Stop incriminating yourselves. Clean up your act now, so maybe the regulators will be lenient on you because at least you reformed yourself.

If a country bans these form of investments then they could charge the investors with money laundering and terrorism charges ,other than that expect these kind of rules and regulations because these ICO's are making millions of dollars without any obligation and it is time that the government disrupt this free flow of money and things might get tough in the future.

Exactly. TPTB let all the government-haters incriminate themselves, because they know they would be able to collect all the high-tech resistance movement (and silver and gold bugs) in one place and then destroy them as they collapse the global economy in next several years.

They will then come after all these people who form the resistance movement and simply confiscate all their assets with a charge of money laundering and throw them in jail for contempt-of-court without due process because they are aiding and abetting terrorists and refuse to provide the private keys for their crypto currency accounts.

It was a trap that the banksters laid. They know damn well the weaknesses of fools. They purposely looked the other way and told regulators to wait.

Folks disassociate yourselves from this immediately. During this past dip, I bought only honestly issued proof-of-work tokens and I have seen them all recover and moving towards new ATHs (slept and woke up and they are all crashed again). There is no need to be involved with the ICOs. They are likely to collapse and you will lose your investment over the next year.

Legally issued ICOs such as Filecoin are not a problem, except that remember the tokens are restricted and can not be traded until the issuer registers them with the regulators. And even after that, they can only be traded on a regulated exchange. Meaning they are just like stocks. You can’t spend them as a cryptocurrency P2P. If you do, you will be doing illegal trading.

Now the way around that dilemma is for Filecoin to issue other tokens which are not paid for. But they can’t issue said other tokens to those who participated in the ICO, because that would just be an obfuscation of the economic reality.

[Geenstijl]

I think that the next max cap can be COMSA ICO. Not just because I advertise it at my signature but because it really strong project from japanese corporation with 3-year-experience, wonderful team which includes NEM devs and great business model.