Initial coin offerings (ICOs) of
crypto-currencies, tokens and other block chain based assets have
raised billions of dollars in recent years. Leading offshore
financial centres such as the British Virgin Islands
(BVI) have sought to become a major part of this
new capital raising phenomenon and there is increasing interest in
the use of BVI companies as ICO issuer vehicles. While other
offshore jurisdictions have experienced similar interest,
structuring an ICO through a BVI company offers a number of
advantages which have made the BVI an attractive ICO base. As a
result the jurisdiction has seen a number of highly successful
launches during the last 12 months.
ICOs
ICOs are, in essence, just another means of accessing
third-party capital. Rather than receiving a security whose return
is dependent on the performance of the business of the issuer or
its group, as in a traditional IPO, in an ICO investors exchange
cash for a new crypto-currency on a blockchain
