The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announced on Monday a series of probes by state and regional regulatory authorities from the US and Canada. The actions are an effort to restrict fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto-related investment products. Dubbed “Operation Cryptosweep,” about 70 investigations have been initiated by NASAA members from over 40 jurisdictions in the US and Canada. Since the beginning of this month, half of the inquiries already have pending or completed enforcement actions.
Joseph P. Borg, NASAA President and head of the Alabama Securities Commission, commented:
“The persistently expanding exploitation of the crypto ecosystem by fraudsters is a significant threat to Main Street investors in the United States and Canada, and NASAA members are committed to combating this threat.”
“Despite a series of public warnings from securities regulators at all levels of government, cryptocriminals need to know that state and provincial securities regulators are taking swift and effective action to protect investors from their schemes and scams,” he added.
Besides the probes, several NASAA regulators are also putting the effort to sound the alarm on the risks related with cryptocurrencies and ICOs. Borg said that not every ICO or crypto-related investment is a scam, but that it was important for everyone to do their homework and research every aspect of any offer being considered.
Regulators have sent cease letters to some of the suspicious entities behind crypto-related products. The targets have been several sites that displayed fake pictures and addresses to look legitimate. Borg revealed that NASAA found about 30,000 domain names associated with cryptocurrency, most of which came out in 2017 and 2018.
The NASAA president said that more enforcement actions are to come.
“The actions announced today are just the tip of the iceberg,” he emphasized.
Recently, we reported that the Wall Street Journal discovered that one out of every five ICOs might be a scam. When researching 1450 token sale events, the WSJ suspected 271 potential frauds.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
