I quote a conversation from official Rise Telegram group and then a fact written by an experienced german businessman:
Official Rise group:[Mistic]
"You got an answer to the 1 million dollar question... correction... German 200.000 euro limit question?"
[Clay aka Laurent from Envion]
"Hi Mistic. It's not a $1 million question. Seems more like manufactured drama. In fact, I'd hazard that you're a capable Google user that has already found the answer.
The sale is limited to German's who make a minimum investment of €200k, so that the STO is not affected by certain provisions which require a lengthy notification period that can last many months and disrupt the planning of the sale. It has no material affect on the project, the company, the token, or otherwise."
Unofficial Rise investors group:"It’s because if you want to do a proper public offering in Germany, BaFin regulations require you to issue a formal prospectus, which requires approval from BaFin. This is usually meant when you say you are „BaFin regulated“. The approval process takes a few months and cost a sizable sum in lawyer cost. If you skip this effort, you don’t have BaFin approval, and you are only allowed to market to the German equivalent of an „accredited investor“ in the US (SEC Regulation D exemption), which means 200k minimum invest and a few other restrictions.
Both the 200k minimum in Germany and the Reg D path in the US are meant to protect naive/inexperienced investors from making investments they don’t understand. Therefore, you have to be a skilled investor to participate. If you go for BaFin approval, they check that all relevant disclosures and risks are clearly written in your prospectus - that way, investors are protected, and you are allowed to market to the public.
What happens here (again) is that Rise marketing is trying to look like this is a regulated security offering, when it is not. They say they are BaFin compliant to appear as if BaFin has approved them. In reality, they have never applied for - or received - any BaFin approval for their token offering. BaFin has never looked at it, most likely. Rise are exempt from regulation because they only market to professional investors in Germany. When they say „we are BaFin compliant“, it only means they are not breaking German law, nothing more.
However, many (naive) investors from around the world read their well crafted marketing and believe this is a safe investment, „because BaFin regulation and Germany“. And this is likely intended.
Reputable companies don’t act like this. All of this shady, misleading and dishonest marketing gives crypto a bad name, and needs to (and will, imho) go away eventually. I hope not too many people get scammed out if their money before that happens."
And some more factshttps://serving.photos.photobox.com/66653086f8f65bea0947201d9e24b4af993b0e1c398e9191f22cf7baf0062249efdbafe0.jpg
