Investing.com - The Securities and Exchange Commission has made initial coin offering a top concern--and for good reason.
Despite a wave of negative publicity, the number of ICOs is increasing, not decreasing.
There were more than 150 ICOs in the first quarter of this year and together they raised $4.83 billion, according to Coinschedule .
That's almost as much as all of 2017.
More of that money was raised in the U.S. than any other country.
ICOs are the first and probably the best chance regulators have to protect investors from fraud, incompetence and excessive risk.
After all, research shows that almost half of last year's ICOs failed, either flopping at the funding stage or going out of business after
their launch.
A large percentage also fell prey to hackers, who stole tens of millions of investors' money.
By claiming most ICOs qualify as securities and thus require registration with regulators, the SEC is drawing a line in the sand and
saying "buyer beware."
After that, investors are pretty much on their own in the high risk, volatile and largely unregulated world of cryptocurrencies.