Chartering legal strategies for investor protection in initial coin offerings

• Main Author: Aurelio GURREA-MARTINEZ
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Business Organizations Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3710; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/5668/viewcontent/chartering.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

While many securities regulators are still debating whether and, if so, how to regulate Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), this new source of finance keeps growing worldwide. In 2017, companies raised around 3.7$ billion. In the first three quarters of 2018, this figure reached more than $17 billion. Therefore, despite the scepticism that some authors and regulators have raised about the use of ICOs, the truth is that the market is buying this product. With this in mind, I provide an outline of what kinds of legal strategies would be appropriate to protect purchasers and prospective purchasers of tokens, including purchasers of tokens that are not or would not be considered securities.