Cryptocurrency News Now!: SEC Publishes Initial Coin Offering Guide

Monday, June 11, 2018

SEC Publishes Initial Coin Offering Guide

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"To be a better investor, you have to stand on your own. You can't copy other people's insights."

- Li Lu

Happy Monday! Monday is a fresh start to the week so hopefully we help you kick it off the right way. 5 minutes of crypto research a day with the Blockchain Brew over time can go a long way for crypto education.

Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team

MARKETS

COIN	PRICE	24H

BTC	$6,785.93	-6.59%

ETH	$531.08	-6.85%

XRP	$0.580351	-7.12%

BCH	$933.083	-9.57%

EOS	$11.1023	-16.16%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST

REGULATION

SEC Publishes Initial Coin Offering Guide

SEC vs ICOS

After the ICO mania seen in 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission has put in a tremendous effort to do its best to regulate initial coin offerings
Already this year, the SEC has acted against fraudelent ICO's, sending out Cease and Desist orders and prosecuting fraudsters
The SEC's goal is not to ban all ICOs or slow down innovation of blockchain technologies, rather simply to protect investors

ICO GUIDE

On Sunday, the SEC published its guide to initial coin offerings to educate investors
The guide provides information about the three “Rs” of ICOs: Risks, Rewards and Responsibilities
The Commission also provides a section with ICO updates, its most recent news and announcment regarding the space

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

In the guide, the SEC provides the 5 most important things investors need to know about ICOs:

ICOs can be security offerings
- ICOs, based on specific facts, may be securities offerings, and fall under the SEC's jurisdiction of enforcing federal securities laws
They need to be registered
- ICOs that are securities most likely need to be registered with the SEC or fall under an exemption to registration
Tokens sold in ICOs can be called many things
- ICOs, or more specifically tokens, can be called a variety of names, but merely calling a token a "utility" token or structuring it to provide some utility does not prevent the token from being a security
ICOs may pose substantial risks
- While some ICOs may be attempts at honest investment opportunities, many may be frauds, separating you from your hard-earned money with promises of guaranteed returns and future fortunes. They may also present substantial risks for loss or manipulation, including through hacking, with little recourse for victims after-the-fact.
Ask questions before investing
- If you choose to invest in these products, please ask questions and demand clear answers

ADOPTION

SEC Could Soon Approve a Cryptocurrency ETF

ETF

ETF is an acronym for exchange-traded fund
Exchange-traded funds are similar to an index fund in that they track a basket of assets and trade on an exchange just like a common stock

CRYPTO ETF SOON

John Hyland, the global head of exchange-traded products for Bitwise Asset Management, recently told ETF.com that a cryptocurrency ETF could hit the market soon
SEC regulation is the only thing stopping a crypto ETF from already existing, but moves are being made to satisfy SEC concerns
The SEC's biggest concern is securely storing the coins in the ETF, the answer to this concern is to back the ETF with crypto futures rather than actual coins, futures give exposure to a coins price while not having to actually own the coin and futures are already regulated by authorities
Four cryptocurrency ETFs have already existed in Europe since 2015, with a total value of roughly $600 million

IT STARTS WITH ONE

Once the first cryptocurrency ETF is approved, many more similar products will come to market quickly
In the future, there could be multiple ETFs offering investors exposure to many different baskets of cryptocurrencies

RESEARCH

Number of Women Interested in Cryptocurrencies Doubles Since the Start of the Year

DOUBLE UP

According to CityA.M., London Block Exchange has released a new study that suggests U.K. women interested in cryptocurrency investment has increased from 6% to 13% in just six months
Not surprisingly, one in five females within the millennial generation want to invest in cryptocurrencies

Agnes de Roeyer, a senior business analyst at London Block Exchange, commented on the growing trend:

"There's still a common misconception that cryptocurrency is a game for men, but we've seen hundreds of women sign up for our exchange in the last few months and some of the most inspiring and knowledgeable investors, leading the way in the industry are female."

OTHER FINDS

In addition to revealing that cryptocurrency investment is growing among women, the study also observed the differences in the way men and women invest
One striking difference was the finding that women are about 50% less likely to be victims of FOMO (fear of missing out) and more likely to take a strategic approach
Also, the research shows that women are more likely to be collaborative and are twice as likely to consult family and friends when making investment decisions whereas men prefer to "go alone"

EXCHANGE

Coinrail Exchange Hacked, $40 Million Possibly Stolen

CYBER INTRUSION

Sunday, Coinrail disabled its systems to conduct maintenance due to a "cyber intrusion" that caused the exchange to possibly lose $40 million in cryptocurrencies
So far, Coinrail has only released a few of the cryptocurrencies that were stolen including the NPXS token from the Pundi X project, ATX from Aston, and the NPER token from the NPER project
Yet, a Medium post by the Pundi X team released findings that the hacker may have made off with 1,927 ETH, 2.6 billion NPXS, 93 million ATX, 831 million DENT, as well as significant amounts of up to 6 other altcoins

MORE DETAILS

Upon announcement, the $40 million in cryptos quickly lost value as the news has caused the included tokens to take a price hit
Coinrail believes to have linked an Ethereum address to the hacker and have since flagged the address as Fake_Phishing1432
Upon investigation of this Ethereum address, one can see that the hacker has tried to sell about 26 million NPXS tokens through the decentralized exchange IDEX

DAMAGE CONTROL

Following the breach, Coinrail has since moved 70% of reserves to a cold wallet that is not accessible through the internet
As for the remaining 30%, they are currently frozen on the exchange as Coinrail is currently investigating with "police, investigators, relevant exchanges, and project developers"

TODAY IN CRYPTO