BaFin, the German Federal Financial Services Supervisory Authority, joins global regulators in releasing guidance for German ICO issuers and advisors.
The growing number and commercial significance of cryptographic token offerings (so-called Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs) has lead financial supervisory authorities across numerous jurisdictions to release statements regarding the regulation of ICOs and tokens. For example, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France, the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in the Netherlands, and the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in Switzerland have all released statements in the last six months. The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt fu¨r Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, or BaFin) had so far only issued a general consumer warning regarding ICOs. However, amid increasing inquiries relating to ICOs and cryptocurrencies, BaFin recently published a statement on the regulatory treatment of ICOs as a matter of securities law compliance.
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