The two men settled the charges without admitting or denying the findings. The SEC says its investigation is ongoing.
The internet is filled with offers of new tokens with names that seem calculated to suggest solidity and reliability: Civic, Paragon, Blockchain Capital. Weighty Latin and Greek names like Veritaseum or Gnosis are also a popular way promoters aim to inspire confidence in a new token.
But despite the broad range of colorful token names, the basic structure of initial coin offerings is often essentially the same. A “White Paper” of some 15 to 20 pages lays out the projected purpose for the token, the technology behind it, the biographies of the promoters, and the sales goals the promoters have set for the token. The White Paper is posted on a flashy website, and the promoters open up a sale of the token to the public for a limited time period.
In essence, an initial coin offering is nothing more than an offer of investment opportunity. The sale of crypto tokens is called an “initial coin offering” (ICO) because it so closely resembles an initial public offering of stock.