The French bill relating to Initial Coin Offerings is said to be tabled imminently. Here is the article thatAdrien basdevant and myself have just published on the Institut Montaigne website.
Note: this article was translated from French by an automated tool Launched in 2014 by Ethereum, which had chosen to finance itself by offering its own token, ether, against bitcoins, the phenomenon of Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs), so called with reference to Initial Public Offerings(IPO), has intensified significantly over the past year. The amounts raised in this way have turned out to be more and more dizzying, with issues totaling around $ 2017 billion in 3 and some more ambitious projects than the others. In June 2017, the projetBraveraised the equivalent of $ 34 million in less than 30 seconds. Currently, Telegram's ongoing ICO has already raised $ 850 million, with a forward target of up to $ 3,8 billion.
The craze for ICOs is understandable. The issues of crypto-assets (or crypto-currencies) make it possible to raise substantial funds in a disintermediated manner, in a relatively short period of time, with fees much lower than those which apply to traditional fundraising. Insofar as the Tokens do not represent shares in the capital, the risk of dilution and loss of control of the company by the directors in place does not exist. However, and although the Tokens most often correspond to the prepayment of the service to be developed and will, sooner or later, be traded on a secondary market with a capital gain, they are nonetheless a risky investment for investors , who have no guarantee of recovering their stake.
For the moment operating outside any regulations, the development of this new " tokeneconomy »Is not necessarily to the liking of the authorities, even if the approaches vary from one country to another. While China and South Korea have banned ICOs and seek to discourage transactions in cryptocurrencies (Bitcoins in particular), Japan and Canada allow them while controlling them. In the United States, the Securities Exchange CommissionSince the end of 2017, has been pursuing an active policy aimed at subjecting fundraising operations, exchange platforms and all professionals in the sector to federal financial regulations. In Europe, the financial authorities of the European Union have, for the time being, repeatedly alerted the general public to the risks of crypto-assets. At the same time, some Member States, such as Spain, are considering the adoption of attractive regulations, particularly from a fiscal point of view, in order to attract fundraising in their territory. Likewise, the Swiss authorities have clarified the regime applicable to crypto-assets, particularly in terms of anti-money laundering legislation, while expressing their wish to see Switzerland remain a welcoming land for ICOs.
You can read the rest of this column on the Institut Montaigne website by clicking here: "The regulation of ICOs in France".