Top Stories This Week Owner of ICO That Never Happened Attempts to Sell Project on eBay for $60,000 The owner of a crypto-related startup dubbed Sponsy, which never launched its initial coin offering (ICO), is attempting to sell the project on eBay for $60,000. The project is described as a blockchain-related identity that is able to launch both an ICO and a security token offering (STO), with the author of the posting claiming that the project was both audited by an investment firm and approved by several investment banks. Sponsy also claims to have a solid social presence, although its …

The bear market has not been easy on the crypto market, especially when it comes to initial coin offerings (ICOs). The demand for small-value tokens issued by relatively unknown projects — some of which eventually might or might not turn out to be viable investments — has been dying out, and the days of “to the moon” meme seem to be well behind. Now, people who jumped on the ICO bandwagon a bit too late are looking for a way out. Enter Ivan Komar, the 21-year-old owner of a startup called “Sponsy,” who is trying to sell his project on …

The Ethereum network is losing ground as developers switch to other projects, various experts told Bloomberg on March 28. Ethereum, which debuted in 2015, initially provided a platform on which developers could build decentralized apps (DApps), conduct initial coin offerings (ICOs) and write smart contracts. Many saw it as being the successor to Bitcoin (BTC). According to Bloomberg, developers are now opting for other platforms like EOS and Stellar. In January, only 28 percent of DApps users were on the Ethereum network, while the EOS network saw 48 percent and Tron accounted for 24 percent. Co-founder of hedge fund Multicoin …

Hong Kong's securities regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued official guidance on security token offerings (STOs), in a statement published on March 28. The guidance aims to clarify the legal and regulatory requirements for parties engaging in STO-related activities. The document opens with a proposed working definition of a security token and sale, noting that: “STOs typically refer to specific offerings which are structured to have features of traditional securities offerings, and involve Security Tokens which are digital representations of ownership of assets (eg, gold or real estate) or economic rights (eg, a share of profits or …

The Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has affirmed that it has not authorized any entity to operate an initial coin offering (ICO) with the agency’s official sanction. The news was reported by Cointelegraph en Español on March 27. The regulator issued an official announcement on March 26, which underscored that the agency had to date neither approved nor exercised any power of authorization or vetting of any project in the ICO sector. CNMV thus stressed that any white paper or other documentation sent to prospective ICO investors should include a disclaimer clarifying that it has not “been subject to …

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has finished enforcement proceedings against crypto mining firm Envion AG, the authority announced on March 27. As a result of the investigation launched in July 2018, FINMA concluded that Envion’s initial coin offering (ICO), which closed in early January 2018, was unlawful. Envion, a blockchain firm that claims to provide decentralized, clean energy for mobile mining units, faced a liquidation order from the cantonal court of Zug in November 2018 for conducting an allegedly unauthorized ICO. According to FINMA, the ICO raised more than 90 million Swiss francs, or roughly $90.5 million, from …

The African Digital Asset Framework (ADAF) — a project that aims to establish compliance-focused, cross-border blockchain standards for the African continent — published the first version of its guidance for initial coin offerings (ICO) on March 25. ADAF is supported by the African Digital Asset Foundation (which shares the same acronym) — a non-profit organization and open-source project founded in November 2018, which aims to encourage self-regulation and foster the establishment of legal and technical standards that would support digital trade between the African continent and the diaspora. According to an official blog post accompanying the new standard, entitled “Consumer …

The owner of a startup that never launched its initial coin offering (ICO) is trying to sell the project on eBay for $60,000, according to an offer on the e-commerce website that expires Friday, March 29. The startup, named “Sponsy,” is described as a blockchain project that is fully prepared to launch both ICO and security token offerings (STO). The author of the offer claims that the project was audited by an investment firm and approved by investment bankers. Moreover, the advertisement states that the solutions developed by Sponsy comply with European Union and United States regulations. In addition, the …

American prediction market startup and hedge fund Numerai (NMR) has raised $11 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) to launch its project Erasure, Numerai tweeted on March 21. Introduced in late 2016, Numeraire network provides a blockchain and cryptographic token-based ecosystem for incentivizing anonymous data scientists to create predictive models. Based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, Numeraire tokens are used in trading market predictions on the startup’s platform. Numerai founder Richard Craib said that the funds from the recent ICO will be mostly spent on hiring engineers for Erasure, the decentralized unit of Numerai’s marketplace, Coindesk reports. Announced in …

Crypto-supportive Silvergate Bank has signed on a slew of new cryptocurrency customers in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to a recent filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing reveals that as of Dec. 31, 2018, Silvergate had 542 digital currency-related clients including cryptocurrency exchanges and miners, custodians and global investors, among others. This marks an increase of 59 crypto-related customers since a previous filing in September 2018. By Dec. 31, 232 cryptocurrency customers were purportedly in various stages of the bank’s customer onboarding process, including regulatory compliance. The bank further says that it believes …

Binance Launchpad, the token launch platform of the major global crypto exchange Binance, has completed a $4 million sale of Celer Network (CELR) tokens, the company wrote on March 19. The tokens sale was completed in 17 minutes and 35 seconds, with all 597,014,925 CELR tokens sold in a single session. As the company announced two weeks ago, the CELR token sale only accepted Binance’s own cryptocurrency Binance Coin (BNB), with each CELR token worth 0.000434 BNB or $0.0067 dollar equivalent. One BNB could purchase 2,303.35821 CELR tokens. The minimum investment amount was set at $20, while the maximum contribution …

Blockchain security firm and wallet service BitGo has announced support for Blockchain Capital’s ERC-20 token, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on March 19. Blockchain Capital’s BCAP token is a security token based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain that was launched in a $10 million initial coin offering (ICO) back in April 2017. According to the press release, BCAP represents the world’s first security token that was sold in an ICO. According to the recent BitGo announcement, BitGo users will now be able to hold their BCAP assets using BitGo Trust Company, a qualified and regulated custodian that …