Amit Gupta
1 min readSep 7, 2017

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I think the SEC does need to come in. Right now ICOs are kind of split between two uses. One is the preorder model where you are receiving a token that you will use in the future such as with ZRX where the token is supposed to be used to pay relayers. The other is basically an IPO, but there is no oversight or regulation which is very very dangerous for investors. I think the SEC needs to codify a new set of rules that ensures that companies provide sufficient financial information and are audited before they can take hundreds of millions of dollars from the public. There should be a way where they can crowdfund seed rounds without having to go through venture capitalists. To prevent these companies from arbitrarily setting their own valuations, perhaps these seed rounds could be structured as convertible notes where the initial capital is structured as a debt that only converts to equity once a large outside investor assigns a value to the company. That could be a late stage VC or a bank underwriting a proper IPO. The government needs to strike a balance between making it easy enough to raise capital as to spur innovation and protecting the average Joe from being fleeced through unregulated ICOs.

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