> or one that doesn't strictly regulate sale of securities
There's a reason why some crypto-companies (and not crypto actually) are based in the Cayman Islands (BitMEX), British Virgin Islands (Bitfinex), etc... Crypto Valley [0] in Switzerland is also gaining momentum. BTW, Fred Wilson wrote an interesting piece about this recently [1].
But the issue here is that if you plan to sell "tokens" to US nationals, you now know that you must play by the SEC rules. That or you shouldn't offer them to US individuals. Nothing rare about it, for instance CFDs [2] are financial instruments banned in the US, but traded without problems in the rest of the world. My guess is that ICOs will be like CFDs, offered around the world, but not to US citizens.
No, the issue is that it doesn't matter where you are based, if you offer securities to US persons, you have to abide by US securities laws. If you offer securities to Germans, you have to abide by German laws.
So once they realize they are securities this applies?
The main question is, are the exchanges considered foreign if the ICO is of a foreign company? How do you trade stuff if the securities are not transferrable?
There's a reason why some crypto-companies (and not crypto actually) are based in the Cayman Islands (BitMEX), British Virgin Islands (Bitfinex), etc... Crypto Valley [0] in Switzerland is also gaining momentum. BTW, Fred Wilson wrote an interesting piece about this recently [1].
But the issue here is that if you plan to sell "tokens" to US nationals, you now know that you must play by the SEC rules. That or you shouldn't offer them to US individuals. Nothing rare about it, for instance CFDs [2] are financial instruments banned in the US, but traded without problems in the rest of the world. My guess is that ICOs will be like CFDs, offered around the world, but not to US citizens.
[0] https://cryptovalley.swiss/
[1] http://avc.com/2017/07/jurisdictional-competition/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference