China’s central bank wages war on ICOs, demanding an immediate stop to all sales
Hong Kong — China’s central bank said initial coin offerings (ICOs) were illegal and asked all related fundraising activity to be halted immediately, issuing the strongest regulatory challenge so far to the burgeoning market for digital token sales. The People’s Bank of China said on its website on Monday that it had completed investigations into ICOs, and will strictly punish offerings in the future while penalising legal violations in ones already completed. The regulator said that those who have already raised money must provide refunds, though it didn’t specify how the money would be paid back to investors. It also said digital token financing and trading platforms are prohibited from doing conversions of coins with fiat currencies. Digital tokens can’t be used as currency on the market and banks are forbidden from offering services to initial coin offerings. "This is somewhat in step with, maybe not to the same extent, what we’re starting to see in other jurisdictions — the sho...
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