Is this considered insider trading and market manipulation?

[bbc.reporter]

Why did Monaco release 2 press releases denoting that they will be issuing a Visa related card if they really did not have direct pending agreement with the credit card company?

I reckon that this is why the PBOC and now Korea and Russia are starting to ban ICOs. The Monaco team might either be irresponsible or they were manipulating the market.



A form of digital money known as Monaco gained as much as 695 percent in value since May 17, when its issuing company tweeted that it would offer a Visa Inc.-branded payment card.

Monaco didn’t have a deal with Visa.

Later that month, Monaco put out a press release describing the benefits of its Visa-branded card.

Again, no agreement with Visa.

Monaco is, however, working with a Visa-licensed issuer, Wirecard AG. As far as Visa goes, Monaco is being vetted through the credit-card issuer’s review process, according to spokeswoman Lea Cademenos.

Cademenos didn’t say how Monaco’s decision to promote two nonexistent relationships with Visa would affect the review process. Wirecard didn’t return requests for comment.

Read the full article https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/cryptocurrency-gained-695-on-deal-with-visa-that-didn-t-happen

[Hyperme.sh]

If they issued an ICO, it is (if fact as alleged) considered fraudulent misrepresentation of material facts.

Re: Does your ICO pass the smell test?

Another smell test are ICOs which make claims which are not objectively provable material facts. They obviously do not care that they are stating claims about the future which they can not be sure of (which is also an illegal activity if the ICO is issued as a security, as is nearly always the case).

99% of ICOs will fail these smell tests, because just as in the Dot.com bubble and bust, 99% of them will be entirely useless other than to FOMOiate a bubble of selling empty bags to greater fools.

Disclaimer: IANAL. This is not legal advice.

[bbc.reporter]

@Hyperme.sh. Yes they had an ICO that started May 18, 2018 and ended on June 18, 2017. The total value in ETH collected was $25 million according to their twitter.

https://twitter.com/monaco_card/status/876676789896069120?lang=en

Also look at how they are described in this page https://tokenmarket.net/blockchain/ethereum/assets/monaco/



Is that also misrepresentation of facts?

[Wyre08]

Sure seems like it is. I wonder if there will be any repercussions against them.

[Spoetnik]

Those two things are specifically mentioned in AML/KYC laws around the world.
If that is the case the people handing their ID etc over to exchanges may get a knock on the door one day.
Hell an IP address may be enough.

I think the idea goes to the root of WHY they launched these things in the first place.
Their handling of these scheme coins is another aspect.
Is the ICO an improvement of mined fairly launched coins like Bitcoin or Litecoin ?
Of course not 

Launching an ICO is in of itself scammy.
Anyone who participants in them should have the Police knock on their door.