Financial authorities are becoming increasingly wary in regards to virtual currencies and their financing through Initial CoinA coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal alloy (or combination of metals) used primarily as legal tender. Issued by government, they are standardised in weight and composition and are produced at ‘mints’. More Offerings (ICO), a market that is expanding rapidly but that is currently not regulated by any institution or legislation. As a result, the central bank of Singapore and the US Securities and ExchangeThe Eurosystem comprises the European Central Bank and the national central banks of those countries that have adopted the euro. More Commission warned consumers against the lack of transparency and the risks inherent to such investments. The Monetary AuthoritySee Central Bank More of Singapore is especially concerned about the vulnerability of cryptocurrencies regarding money launderingThe operation of attempting to disguise a set of fraudulently or criminally obtained funds as legal, in operations undeclared to tax authorities, and therefore not subjected to taxation. Money laundering activities are strongly pursued by authorities and in most countries, there are strict rules for credit institutions to cooperate in the fight against money laundering operations, to declare and report any transactions that could be considered suspicious. More.
Sharing the same concerns, the People’s Bank of China recently announced a complete and immediate ban on ICOs. The bank added that about 60 suspicious ICOs will be investigated in the coming months, with firms risking severe sanctions. ICOage and ICO.info – two major Chinese platforms used for tokens exchange – have already suspended their operations. ICOs are used to raise funds to finance fintech start-ups. The equivalent of millions of US dollars can be raised in just a couple of minutes using this form of crowdfunding, as Brendan Eich demonstrated a few months ago with the collection of USD 35 million in 30 seconds.
Around 65 ICOs were launched in 2017 in China, representing a total of USD 394.6 million in virtual currencies raised by 105,000 Chinese citizens, according to governmental data. Following the People’s Bank announcement, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 6.2% and has continued this downward trend ever since. China is a major player in BitcoinBitcoin is commonly said to be a cryptocurrency, a digital means of exchange developed by a set of anonymous authors under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, which began operating in 2009 as a community project (Wikipedia type), without the relationship or dependency of any government, state, company or body, and whose value (formed by a complicated system of mathematical algorithms and cryptography) is not supported by any central bank or authority. Bitcoins are essentially accounting entries i... More trades. Its decision to ban ICOs may well influence other central banks in the near future.