Move 'Em Out: ICOs Don't Seem So Scary Outside the US

ICO issuers are starting to look to jurisdictions outside the U.S. to set up shop.

In an environment of regulatory uncertainty, where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has begun investigating ICOs and the industry surrounding the capital raising technology but has yet to make a formal decision of how it will regulate crypto tokens, issuers and other stakeholders are finding other jurisdictions a better bet for launching their projects.

Both on stage and off, startup founders, attorneys and investors had strong opinions about how far to go in an environment where enforcement agencies know how easy the market boom for the tokens makes it for malicious actors to spin up a fake company and bilk millions of dollars out of unwitting buyers.

Paypal's original chief operating officer and now an investor in Craft Ventures, which incubated and backed the security token platform Harbor, David Sacks spoke to how getting compliance right led cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to be "The first really successful company in the space."

The startups, including those domiciled in places like Hong Kong and Singapore - attractive places after China's central bank banned crypto token sales - spoke to how they viewed the regulatory environment throughout the world.

"If we wait too long, that gives us complications on the product side, whereas if we move too early that gives us trouble on the legal side."

His company is based in Switzerland, where the rules are clear enough that the company isn't concerned.

Jae Kwon of Cosmos said similar things of stage, telling the crowd he's glad the company did its token fundraiser before all the ICO hype started.

Leonard Frankel, CEO of ClanPlay, an existing gaming company, which is building the Good Game token, in order for gamers to earn money for playing, has a very complicated plan to get both the tax and legal structures he desires.

An Israeli company, Frankel plans to actually launch his tokens out of Gibraltar but then transfer them to Israel and sell them from his home country, so that the company will pay its taxes there.