SEC Cools a Red-Hot Crypto Market by Picking Up the Telephone
- Firms shelve ICO plans after getting calls from regulator
- Companies realized offerings might violate securities laws
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Wall Street’s main regulator has repeatedly warned that the hot new market for initial coin offerings is probably full of fraud. Now it’s found an old-fashioned way to slow it down: picking up the telephone.
More than a dozen crypto-linked companies have shelved plans to raise money from investors after Securities and Exchange Commission officials called them up, Robert Cohen, head of the SEC’s cyber enforcement unit, said Friday. The SEC scrutiny prompted firms to realize their offerings may have violated federal securities laws, he said at a conference in Washington.