ICOs were one of the breakthroughs in the tech industry in 2017. Initially it was just those in the blockchain space who were aware, but as the year went on a number of existing business grew attracted to the idea of raising money without the usual route of VCs and lost equity. The year ended with more than $4 billion raised via ICOs. It’s fair to say that the concept is widely-known… Read More
Category: ICO
An hard look at token sale mania by an true insider
Moshe Hogeg is a fixture in the Valley mythos. This Israeli founder of Yo (yes, that Yo) and Mobli, he recently became one of the most prolific ICO investors in the world with a thesis that, in short, that states he will put small amounts of mone…
View More An hard look at token sale mania by an true insiderDo good companies ICO?
There has been a veritable explosion in the use of initial coin offerings (abbreviated ICO, sometimes also referred to as a token generating event or TGE, or a WTFLOL) to fund startups. Calculating the total investment in these offerings is compl…
View More Do good companies ICO?6 red flags of an ICO scam
With exponential growth in public interest, esoteric terminology and a lax regulatory framework, it is no surprise that some ICOs have been used to fund scams and cheat investors of their money. While nothing can compete with quality due diligenc…
View More 6 red flags of an ICO scamHope grows that a larger SEC crackdown on ICOs is coming — and soon
That wait-and-see stance looks to evolve into much more action 2018, suggest those who’ve either spoken with the Securities & Exchange Commission or otherwise have a vested interest in its rulings. (The SEC isn’t commenting publicly on its specific plans.)
Just Friday, a new division of the agency that’s focused on ICOs filed charges against an outfit called PlexCoin… Read More
SEC’s new cyber unit takes its first action to halt an initial coin offering ‘scam’
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Canadian crypto company PlexCorp with violating securities laws by selling up to $15 million in an initial coin offering (ICO). ICO’s have seen explosive growth over the past year as fledgling companies have used them raise more than $3 billion in capital through various cryptocurrencies. However, experts have warned they can present… Read More
Find your red-eyed fans
I’ve been thinking about token sale marketing lately mostly because it’s been so bad. I’ve gotten hundreds of emails asking me to be an ICO advisor or evangelist or influencer primarily because the ICO marketing techniques come to us straight out of the spammiest corners of affiliate marketing. I’ve gotten emails from founders who have been promised “posts on… Read More
Uber data breach includes UK users — but it’s still not clear how many
The UK’s digital minister has said the October 2016 data breach that Uber disclosed this week does affect UK users — though it’s still unclear how many are impacted at this stage. Read More
Uber data breach “raises huge concerns”, says UK watchdog
The fallout from Uber’s disclosure yesterday of a massive data breach affecting 57 million users and drivers that it concealed for a year continues: The UK’s data protection watchdog has put out a strongly worded statement saying the company’s announcement “raises huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics”. Read More
Company raises $347K ICO, vanishes
A company called Confido raised a small ICO by selling special CFD designed to allow “safe and trustless cryptocurrency payments. According to ICODrops they raised their goal of about $400,000 and quickly disappeared, taking the cash with it. The site is currently a parked web server that points to nothing. The apparent founder and former eBay employee, Joost van Doorn, posted a message to… Read More
One company raised $375,000 in cryptocurrency—then disappeared from the internet
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Confido was the light in the dark that promised better times ahead.
After a string of Initial Coin Offerings that brought buyers nothing but grief (and lost money), the scrappy little startup become the darling of the crypto world. It was only raising $400,000. It was running lean.
But now, just two weeks after the ICO ended, the project’s website and founders are all gone, and the price of the Confido token (CFD) is near zero.
To see why Confido was successful — at first, at least — we need to go a little further back. ICOs, or digital token crowdsales, are events in which startups raise funds by selling digital tokens to anyone willing to participate. And this summer, ICOs for projects such as 0x, Civic and district0x were incredibly successful: The projects’ founders raised tens of millions of dollars, and shortly after the tokens became tradable their value surged, bringing quick and easy profits to token owners. Read more…
More about Scam, Ico, Confido, Business, and Sharing Economy
Coin offerings using celebrity glitter may not be golden, SEC warns
A slew of media stars have hitched their stars to various virtual currencies, lending their social media outreach and luster to projects that have seemed less than golden. Now the SEC is warning celebrities that their endorsements “may be unlawful if they do not disclose the nature, source, and amount of any compensation paid, directly or indirectly, by the company in exchange for the… Read More