{"id":705,"date":"2017-11-19T15:13:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T20:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvermillerlaw.com\/media-coverage\/just-the-beginning-tezos-lawsuits-could-open-doors-for-ico-litigation\/"},"modified":"2023-06-12T13:24:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T13:24:20","slug":"just-the-beginning-tezos-lawsuits-could-open-doors-for-ico-litigation","status":"publish","type":"news_posts","link":"https:\/\/www.silvermillerlaw.com\/press\/in-the-news\/just-the-beginning-tezos-lawsuits-could-open-doors-for-ico-litigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Just the Beginning? Tezos Lawsuits Could Open Doors for ICO Litigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>David Silver Quote:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<strong>ICO investors are following the shaky strategy of \u201cblind gut and luck\u201d investing. Their investments are more about faith than about facts. While it&#8217;s good to have faith in life, it&#8217;s even better to have facts when investing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While startups launching initial coin offerings (ICOs) may be all too aware they&#8217;re working in a legal gray area, that might not be enough to stop lawsuits that could test their legality.<\/p>\n<p>At issue is that, although the U.S. agency tasked with enforcing securities law \u2013 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) \u2013 has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/head-sec-concerned-ico-pump-dumps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voiced concerns<\/a>\u00a0about cryptocurrency tokens (even labeling one a security), it has yet to announce much in the way of formal rules.<\/p>\n<p>But while the SEC would have bearing on criminal lawsuits, courts hearing civil suits aren&#8217;t necessarily constrained or dictated by the SEC&#8217;s lack of a formal position on ICOs. Instead, these courts would make decisions based on their prior rulings and the specific circumstances of a case.<\/p>\n<p>But what would that decision be? That question hinges on another:\u00a0What makes an ICO a security or something else? Although attempts to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/saft-arrives-simple-investor-agreement-aims-remove-ico-complexities\/\">interpret existing law<\/a>\u00a0have been made, it&#8217;s unclear\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/utility-coins-crypto-assets-token-terminology-one-big-gray-area\/\">even to those in the know<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"top-id\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>Now, following the news that Tezos, one of the largest most visible startups yet to use the ICO funding mechanism, has been hit with two\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/tezos-founders-sued-securities-fraud-potential-class-action\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lawsuits<\/a>, it seems lawyers and litigators are lining up to press the issue, potentially with the aim of a payday in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Hanks, CEO of CrowdCheck, a consultancy that assists entrepreneurs and investors with crowdfunding campaigns, told CoinDesk:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/just-beginning-tezos-lawsuits-mean-ico-litigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the rest of the article.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1769,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news_categories":[],"class_list":["post-705","news_posts","type-news_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Just the Beginning? 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