Why are USA citizens not allowed to participate in ICO

[tayecrypto]

I observe that every new ico are banning usa citizens from buying there coins at initial stage and also from Airdrops and bounty programmes....what could be the reason for this?  

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[lizardbtc]

i observe that every new ico are banning usa citizens from buying there coins at initial stage and also from Airdrops and bounty programmes....what could be the reason for this? 

It is simple when you think about it. It must have something to do with regulations, as I do not live in the USA I don't know their laws. But most probably ones who are holding an ICO have to register or do various paperwork to be able to host their ICO for USA citizens, which means that it is much easier for them to simply exclude them from the offering. However if you are from USA and you are looking into buying into some ICO you can alwasy wait for the tokens to get lsited on some DEX as most of the time price will tank and go down at first due to many people selling so you could grab some cheap coins at the end of the day.

[butka]

Many ICOs sell tokens that in their essence are nothing else but securities.
If they are securities, they have to be registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
There is a test (Howey Test) to determine whether a token should be considered a security token
or utility token (in which case the SEC regulations don't apply). You can read more about the criteria of
the Howey Test that are used to determine if a token is a security or not here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2325274.0

So either an ICO would have to register their token as security, or if they think that their token is not a security,
they would have to ask for exemption from the SEC. In either case, it is easier to exclude US citizens from the
ICO.

Many of the ICOs are located in Gibraltar, Singapore, Switzerland, and a couple of other countries that look
more favorably on such projects and have less strict regulations in this respect.

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

[sunsilk]

USA became strict to these type of investments so there's SEC that's monitoring ICO's.

As an addition to butka's word, there's a lot of ICOs that scammed Americans that made them aware and drew their attention to these investment vehicles.

Why Can’t US Citizens Participate in ICO’s?

Read the link I gave, it's informative on why USA citizens can't participate ICOs but there's a twist.

[botany]

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

Even ICOs which do not require KYC verification sometimes ask you to confirm that you are not a resident of the USA. They may not make their fund raising and info sites accessible to computers with USA IP addresses. They do this to ensure that they take all reasonable precautions to make sure their tokens are not offered to US citizens.

[Oasisman]

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

Even ICOs which do not require KYC verification sometimes ask you to confirm that you are not a resident of the USA. They may not make their fund raising and info sites accessible to computers with USA IP addresses. They do this to ensure that they take all reasonable precautions to make sure their tokens are not offered to US citizens.

Exactly, IP address could be automatically detect it.
I dont know if there are still US citizens that could secretly participates in any ICO's without being detected, because I have one thing in my mind. In an ICO that doesnt require KYC verification, what if they use a program that could change their IP addresses? Is that even possible?

[butka]

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

Even ICOs which do not require KYC verification sometimes ask you to confirm that you are not a resident of the USA. They may not make their fund raising and info sites accessible to computers with USA IP addresses. They do this to ensure that they take all reasonable precautions to make sure their tokens are not offered to US citizens.

Exactly, IP address could be automatically detect it.
I dont know if there are still US citizens that could secretly participates in any ICO's without being detected, because I have one thing in my mind. In an ICO that doesnt require KYC verification, what if they use a program that could change their IP addresses? Is that even possible?

You could use Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide/change your IP address. This could possibly work. But if they don't require KYC, I don't think they would bother detecting the IP addresses of their participants in the first place.

[Oasisman]

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

Even ICOs which do not require KYC verification sometimes ask you to confirm that you are not a resident of the USA. They may not make their fund raising and info sites accessible to computers with USA IP addresses. They do this to ensure that they take all reasonable precautions to make sure their tokens are not offered to US citizens.

Exactly, IP address could be automatically detect it.
I dont know if there are still US citizens that could secretly participates in any ICO's without being detected, because I have one thing in my mind. In an ICO that doesnt require KYC verification, what if they use a program that could change their IP addresses? Is that even possible?

You could use Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide/change your IP address. This could possibly work. But if they don't require KYC, I don't think they would bother detecting the IP addresses of their participants in the first place.

I see, I thought there is an automatic IP detection that could block a US citizen once accessing the ICO websites, just like other cases, that prohibits a certain country to gain access to such site. Like pornography, some websites in my place were being blocked but not all. 
Thanks for enlightening btw.

[konomi]

The protection of investors in the United States is very strict, and ICO is a high-risk investment. The United States currently has no effective way to supervise ICO, so the United States currently does not allow people in their own countries to participate in ICO.

[Samarkand]

... The United States currently has no effective way to supervise ICO, so the United States currently does not allow people in their own countries to participate in ICO.

This is not true.

You are allowed to participate in an ICO even if you are based in the US.
However, an ICO is a form of a capital raise that falls under the supervision
of the SEC (Securities and Exchange commission). The problem is that most
ICOs are not registered with the SEC.

Obviously, it is easier for most projects to just exclude US investors, because this
frees them from the huge red tape and the enormous costs that are associated with
registering with the SEC.

[baundul]

America's crypt is friendly, but it uses many hardships. In each of the ICO projects, they scrutinize the law. Most projects do not want this law to go into complexity. As a result, they prevented Americans from entering ICO.
https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-US-citizens-participate-in-ICOs

[audaciousbeing]

I observe that every new ico are banning usa citizens from buying there coins at initial stage and also from Airdrops and bounty programmes....what could be the reason for this?  

You know the fact is most of the ICOs are only following the band wagon that since this particular ICO does not allow US investors, then its better we don't also allow not because they know the reason but because they trust what make ICO A not to accept this, we also should not accept and I think this is a good question because even me, I don't know the real reason but confident that its going to be about regulation issues.

I will want to take an holistic view as to why they don't accept US investors which is not because of the rule but the enforcement of it (for the ICOs that knows the rule). They know that if they allow US citizens, the relevant government agencies have the power and resources to go after them if they so wish. Unlike other countries that have equally made a position against investment in ICO but their name is not part of the terms and conditions you have to specifically tick that you don't belong too before being allowed to participate.

[MiF]

Edit: I forgot to mention that USA citizens may still participate in the ICOs that don't require KYC verification.

Even ICOs which do not require KYC verification sometimes ask you to confirm that you are not a resident of the USA. They may not make their fund raising and info sites accessible to computers with USA IP addresses. They do this to ensure that they take all reasonable precautions to make sure their tokens are not offered to US citizens.

Exactly, IP address could be automatically detect it.
I dont know if there are still US citizens that could secretly participates in any ICO's without being detected, because I have one thing in my mind. In an ICO that doesnt require KYC verification, what if they use a program that could change their IP addresses? Is that even possible?

You could use Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide/change your IP address. This could possibly work. But if they don't require KYC, I don't think they would bother detecting the IP addresses of their participants in the first place.

I see, I thought there is an automatic IP detection that could block a US citizen once accessing the ICO websites, just like other cases, that prohibits a certain country to gain access to such site. Like pornography, some websites in my place were being blocked but not all. 
Thanks for enlightening btw.

Those tight reasons is highly agreeable because there's an agreement from ICO promoters between the government regulations. Most of the people who resides in the US was having credit cards, and that was conflicting the centralized currency's fiat economy. Banks will be threatened due to that reason for having debts just for an ico participation. If KYC can be a good ways to detect these cheating us residents, then its highly recommended for most of the upcoming ICO projects.

[labhsikh123]

It depends on  rule and regulations of concern country.

[Chaki]

USA can participate on some ICO but their are ICO project limits to People living inside USA, because you know due to some laws and declaration of their current president, and you should abide it if want your project will not be affected by this laws.

[jseverson]

I see, I thought there is an automatic IP detection that could block a US citizen once accessing the ICO websites, just like other cases, that prohibits a certain country to gain access to such site. Like pornography, some websites in my place were being blocked but not all. 
Thanks for enlightening btw.

I would be surprised if they went this far. All they would really need to do is to say US residents are not allowed to participate and have them swear on the ToS that they're not US residents. That way, they get more potential customers by giving people an opportunity to lie and participate, and it pretty much frees them of the legal responsibilities.

But yeah, the SEC is clamping down, and ICO organizers generally like easy money. Very few of them actually want to go through the trouble of complying with regulations when there's still a lot of business elsewhere.

[acheampong64]

The fact is regulations about crypt are something that we're all sceptical about and sometimes they are not always straightforward. So to be free of legal liabilities and its associated problems, many ICOs will exempt countries which are trying to implement certain regulations so that they become free from current or future legal troubles