SEC moves in and is putting regualtory pressure on Bitcoin and ICO funding
A Wall street Journal story reported scores of subpoenas have been issues by the SEC to dozens of technology companies in their ICOs
6.5 Billion dollars of ICOs were issues in 2017 and so far 1.6B have been issues in 2018.
To put this in a bit of comparison the not so long ago Snapchat IPO raised 3.4 billion, but only 2.3 billion actually went to Sanpchat. The other 1.1 Billion was put towards investment bank and regulation filing fees.
So the ~8 billion in ICO funding represents close to 3 billion dollars of lost fees to the regulatory agencies and banks that run the current investment world.
While this is great for the companies needing money and puts more money into their pockets; sometimes unjustly since over half of these ICOs have already failed with or without a actual failed business. The ICOs without doubt give a big loss to the current powers that be, and they wont give them up without a fight.
and in every war there are lots of civilian casualties, and as a result refugees who leave the battle grounds to stay out of the war.
The battleground will be bitcoin and crypto currency markets, and I would expect lots of refugees(investors) to begin leaving with as much as they can carry. Regulation will bring lots of volatility and more than likely lower prices and thinner markets. I feel like the true and nontrue HODL'ers will soon be sorted.
This must have been expected considering the billions of dollars raised last year in these ICOs and with no registrations with the SEC. The SEC is doing their due diligence to ensure that investor interests are being protected where needed and to ensure laws intended to do so where not followed. This may cause some short term concern but the ICO public sale market has dried up lately due to these concerns. Their target will be those that are fraudulent and not those with try projects that provide utility to their token holders (at least in the short-term).
I'd agree with that tokens that provide use aren't an issue but tokens that are put up for sale as a source of funding are basically issuing shares of stock without actually issuing shares of stock. SEC would put those down with no remorse I'd imagine.
Wow even Overstock received a subpoena, I felt they were the ones really doing things as legitimately and regulated as possible. But maybe the results of their findings will show that to be true.
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