The FCA Speaks Out On Initial Coin Offerings

The initial coin offerings (ICOs) regulatory map has begun to take shape with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Australia offering their opinions on ICOs. The FCA recently stated that ICOs are "very high-risk, speculative investments." The Dubai Financial Services Authority has also voiced that these products are high-risk. The People's Bank of China has gone even further and condemned ICOs to be "essentially a form of unapproved illegal public financing behavior." With these strong opinions already out there, companies thinking of pursuing ICO's should consider the regulations they may face and conduct thorough due diligence.