ICOs

This is a concrete example of the court system showing a willingness to treat ICOs as if they are not necessarily tied to securities regulations.

Rice is accused of scamming investors out of more than $4 million through a cryptocurrency scam that promised federally insured accounts and brand-name credit cards.

Commissioner Rome signed the orders against Global Pay Net, Credits LLC, CrowdShare Mining and CyberSmart Coin Invest for allegedly publishing misleading statements on their websites with false promises to defraud investors.

This broad, authoritative declaration is not unexpected, as, to date, the SEC has stated that all digital assets — regardless of whether they function as alt coins or utility tokens — are securities at least initially and, thus, subject to its jurisdiction.

The South Korean ICO has defrauded its private sale investors out of roughly 13,500 ETH ($2.8 million) before disappearing from the internet entirely.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC), China's central bank, has its eyes on cryptocurrency companies that run airdrop campaigns in the country.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released a report detailing actions taken against fraudulent ICOs and financial ventures, and, indeed, the year has been wrought with cases.

The reality of smart contract adoption: Ethereum's top 10 transaction volumes are to DApps that are used for token sales, decentralized exchanges and trading digital kittens.

Despite a flurry of media attention surrounding the project, Civil, an Ethereum-based platform aiming to save journalism, can’t seem to get enough buyers for its token.

A report released by blockchain research group Diar shows that almost $3.9 billion in investments was raised in the first three quarters of 2018 by blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused startups.