Austria FMA guide on ICO and Tokens The Austrian Financial Markets Authority, FMA, published a complete guide on ICOs. It follows a prior analysis on its "2018-2023 strategy report" and similar efforts of other regulators. The FMA considers
USA SEC vs Jesky : 1.4 Millions in settlement Pursuant the Securities Act 5(a) and 5(b), the Securities Exchange Commission filed a complaint on July 2, 2018 against attorney T.J. Jesky and the law firm's manager Mark DeStefano. Involved
Switzerland FINMA-Guidance 04/2017 on the Regulatory treatment of initial coin offerings Guidance on September 29th, 2017276 Background FINMA recognises the innovative potential of distributed ledger/blockchain technology. It welcomes and supports all efforts to develop and implement blockchain solutions in the Swiss financial centre.
Italy Italian Inland Revenue The Italian Inland Revenue (Agenzia delle Entrate), through resolution of September 2016240, on the basis of the judgement of the EU Court of Justice (Case C-264/14), stated that operations in cryptocurrencies in
Italy OneCoin - Italian Antitrust Authority Through resolutions dated December 2016 and August 2017238, the Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato)---empowered by the Italian Consumer Protection Code---suspended activities, and subsequently fined companies carrying out
Italy Crypt Trade - CONSOB Resolution n. 20207 (Dec. 6, 2017) Crypt Trade is a platform for trading and advising services about cryptocurrencies based in Alicante (Spain) and Glasgow (UK). The platform was offering "cryptocurrencies' extraction kits" which involved (i) a certain
United Arab Emirates FSRA Guidance on ICOs and Virtual Currencies The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) issued a Guidance on its approach to ICOs on October 9 2017 under the Financial Services and Markets Regulations 2015 ("
New Zealand FMA Commentary on ICOs and cryptocurrency services On October 25, The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) announced the publication of notices on ICOs and cryptocurrency services alongside online resources for investors. The extent to which an ICO is regulated depends whether
Australia ASIC information sheet on ICOs The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced on September 28, 2017 the release of information sheet 225 on ICOs. The sheet considers that the legal status of an ICO is dependent of the
Russia Bank of Russia Warning In September 2017, the Bank of Russia issued a warnings about the risks posed by cryptocurrencies and ICOs. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Finance is drafting a law that would
Israel ISA Press release on trading of cryptocurrencies ISA issued a statement on December 12, 2017 on trading of cryptocurrencies. Shmuel Hauser, the Chairman of ISA is critical of bitcoin and its high volatility, estimating that it was for him a
Israel ISA announcement of national committee The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has announced on Aug 30, 2017 the creation of a national committee to rule on whether tokens should be considered financial securities and to recommend a regulatory policy
South Korea FSC (Korea) ban on ICOs On September 29, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) issued a statement following a meeting with other administrations to discuss counter measures against the trend of virtual currencies.307 The statement observes that ICOs
Malaysia Media Statement on Initial Coin Offerings The Security Commission of Malaysia (SC) issued a statement on Sept. 7, 2017 warning investors of the various risks posed by ICOs, and the high number of frauds that come along them. Because
Taiwan Financial Technology Innovative Experimentation Act The Executive Yuan approved on May 5, 2017 the draft act prepared by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). The legislation propose a regulatory sandbox suspending criminal and administrative liabilities arising from engaging in
Hong Kong SFC circular on Bitcoin futures contracts and cryptocurrency-related investment products The Circular of Hong Kong's SFC of Dec.11, 2017 is addressed to Licensed Corporations and Registered Institutions. The SFC first acknowledges that Bitcoin Futures contracts have been allowed in the US. Those
Hong Kong SFC Statement on ICOs on Sept. 5 2017 The Securities and Future Commissions (SFC) of Hong Kong released a statement on September 5, 2017 clarifying Hong Kong's Law on ICO. While the SFC estimates digital tokens are virtual commodities, certain ICOs
France Two early ICOs in France Iexec Iexec aims to become a decentralized computing platform. The project allows Decentralized Applications (DAPPS) and other users to require external computation while the protocole validate the results in a decentralized manner. Led
France Clarification on cryptoassets taxation in France On April 26th, 2018, the Supreme Administrative Court ("Conseil d'Etat"), clarified prior instructions from the tax administrations. In 2014 the tax administration had presented capital gains from bitcoin as either industrial
France Ordinance on the use of shared registers for the transmission of financial titles On December 8 2017, the French president signed a legislative order210 authorizing the use of a "shared digital registering device"---a formal designation for blockchain systems---for the transmission of financial titles
France Discussion Paper AMF on Oct. 22, 2017 The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) published209 on October 22 a discussion paper regarding its analysis of the application of existing regulatory framework to ICOs and future regulatory options. Current Framework While most
France France As part of the European Union, France's regulatory framework complies with the Prospectus Regulation as well as the Markets in Financial Instruments, Alternative Investment Fund Managers and Anti-Money Laundering Directives. As a civil
Gibraltar Gibraltar Statements Proposals for a DLT Regulatory Framework on May 2017 300 The Ministry of Commerce of HM Government of Gibraltar issued a public consultation regarding a proposed regulation for blockchain-related activities, with the objectives
PRC Examples of ICOs in PRC Without exception, all current ICOs with teams based in mainland China issue their tokens outside of mainland China, mostly Hong Kong. A current example is www.matrix.space. List of ICO's subject to
Italy CONSOB notice The Italian security commission (CONSOB) issued on December 4 2017 a warning summarizing the ESMA statements237, regarding investors and firms: The speculative nature of ICOs with not easily perceived risks. The volatility of
