ICO Legality

[eduinvestor]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

[Javi_Anibarro]

they ban all ICOs,
the reason is very simple which are to prevent their citizen from a fraud attempt and to keep their investor interest.
do not you think it's funny to see your citizen and investor suffer due to an unknown investment ?
that is why some countries banned the ICOs and i will do the same because most of them did not deliver what they promised to us

[ask]

Its weird. In my country ICO is not banned but if its banned i will use VPN or other solutions to invest in ICO . I have the freedom to lose my money.

[Patatas]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

Simple,the governments don't get to make a penny from it while people make lot of money in terms of investment and returns.
Specifically speaking not all the countries care only the highly commercialised democratic evil America and China have those rules applied last time I checked.Having said that,if you want to invest in a particular coin you can always do that with keeping enough anonymity.

[Red-Apple]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

almost all the countries that matter enough have already banned ICOs or are in the process of banning them. other countries don't look at ICOs kindly and that is because they say ICO is a fund raising and they are raising funds illegally since they are scamming people and return nothing. they are fake people calling themselves "company" which raise a lot of money this way and that is not legal thing to do in any country.

[Ging]

indeed this increasing governmental banning toward the up rising waves of ico's has become annoying, these governments claimed that they simply can not track the flow of currencies and their resources but  come on the future is here i am with regulation but i refuse the ban.

[eduinvestor]

So in these countries is illegal to invest in ICOs but it's legal to buy/trade tokens once they are in exchanges, right?

[Patatas]

indeed this increasing governmental banning toward the up rising waves of ico's has become annoying, these governments claimed that they simply can not track the flow of currencies and their resources but  come on the future is here i am with regulation but i refuse the ban.

They cannot track anybody but the parent organisation.It's all a nice political game to be honest.They want  to make money out of ICO's too.

almost all the countries that matter enough have already banned ICOs or are in the process of banning them. other countries don't look at ICOs kindly and that is because they say ICO is a fund raising and they are raising funds illegally since they are scamming people and return nothing. they are fake people calling themselves "company" which raise a lot of money this way and that is not legal thing to do in any country.

What about the legit companies ? Fake or Not it's not upto the government to decide.People should have their freedom should they choose to invest their money with a particular company.

[NeoTech42]

Some countries want to control the tax evasion. Sometimes, it's to protect consumers to buy tokens because there are so many project without a real future.

[anasso]

i am sure it's a just temporary ban because governments wants to protect their citizens!

they wants more traceability that allow them to tax profits made from ICO

[Funeral Wreaths]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

almost all the countries that matter enough have already banned ICOs or are in the process of banning them. other countries don't look at ICOs kindly and that is because they say ICO is a fund raising and they are raising funds illegally since they are scamming people and return nothing. they are fake people calling themselves "company" which raise a lot of money this way and that is not legal thing to do in any country.

i do prefer your statement also. since other countries that bans ICO's considered those things are illegal, and to think that it has a scary system and the way they attract investors its the most thing that makes government worried, and to add more that they could just easily run with the money after the ICO.

[clrpod]

To my understanding most that ban ICOs are doing it because they are very under regulated and so investors are very much under risk, they ban ICOs therefore to protect their citizens who want to invest.

[neurotypical]

So in these countries is illegal to invest in ICOs but it's legal to buy/trade tokens once they are in exchanges, right?

They are considered as securities by some countries, so if you are not authorized to deliver securities, you are in a way that im not really exactly how, being part of illegal activity (it should be the people hosting the ICO, not the ones buying it in my opinion). The smartest people saw this coming a long time ago.

But there will always ways to circumvent this, so ICOs aren't going to stop. Just check from where the ICO is being hosted, and if you are sure that the spot allows for ICOs then go for it. Use an VPN as needed to circumvent any local limitations if needed.

[Prodigan786]

Lots of ico in early this year can able to raise the fund with only white paper and website then after successful ico most of the project become disaster so in my view legalising ico will protect investors. So I am also welcoming the current move countries making regulation towards legalising ico.

[sylance]

they ban all ICOs,
the reason is very simple which are to prevent their citizen from a fraud attempt and to keep their investor interest.
do not you think it's funny to see your citizen and investor suffer due to an unknown investment ?
that is why some countries banned the ICOs and i will do the same because most of them did not deliver what they promised to us

That's the stated reason, but I highly doubt it's to protect the citizens.  ICO's take control away from government agencies like the US's Security & Exchange Commission (SEC.)  The SEC sets all the regulations for IPO's and alos charge registration and license fees.  Then along comes a group of people who launch an ICO and bypasses their regulations completely.

Secondly, ICO's allow the common person to invest in projects whereas you have to meet a high income criteria to invest in venture capital.  Again this is government agencies losing power.

[WyattS]

In the US, the SEC was formed from a belief that the Blue Sky Laws were not being enforced.  These laws were aimed at protecting private investors, providing causes of action against securities fraud.  That was almost 100 years ago, though, and has obviously morphed over time.  That said, the initial desire was and is to protect investors.  Also, as was quoted in the recent Ethereal SF Summit, regulation is a sign that something is doing well.  Most of us already knew this though 

[HashFace]

It's because some ICOs have been 100% scam ... i.e., the scammer collected a bunch of Etherium or Bitcoin and disappeared.  

But even if that were not the case, most governments regulate "investments" in all their forms, so once ICOs got on their radar, many governments have decided to take action.  I think most goverments will allow ICOs once regulation authority is in place.

[Dullmartini]

Because they compete with initial public offerings, which are highly regulated and very expensive to do. So it’s not fair to call something a “token” (which gives you even less rights than a traditional share which at least gives you some ownership rights) and not have to comply with securities laws instead of calling it a security and having to go through the regulatory process.

Initial public offerings are regulated to protect investors from frauds and scams. Government thinks small investors are too stupid to protect themselves. It started after the Great Depression in 1933-1934 so maybe the laws had a point at that time but they’re very outdated now.

[michellee]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

some of country giving permission to cryptocurrencies and ico and some of the other country is forbidden. the government give their protection to their citizen to not getting scam by the ico which can not proof the legality of the project. many of ico which has been launch need to have advisor team and financial fund to protect the fund from the investor so they can feel safe. the country and the government is only want to protect their citizen from the programs that want to running the investor money.

[cafucafucafu]

Some countries don't allow people to invest in ICOs. Why is that? They don't allow ICO that issues dividends and represents the shares of a company, or they just ban all the ICOs?

It's just a rule. Laws are everywhere and it's just how countries want to run their country. Some countries seem to think that all ICOS are scams and wil ljust take away from people's savings, others justify their actions from labelling ICOs as unregulated securities, there's a bunch of reasons.

It depends on the country. Some countries ban ICOs outright, some just ban the purchasing.

If you aren't in the listed accepted countries it's better to stay away from any ICOs.