The cryptocurrency space in the U.S. state of Colorado continued to muddle up, this time with another development in the field of allegedly fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs). On Wednesday, Colorado Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome ordered three cryptocurrency firms allegedly promoting unregistered ICOs to show cause.
To show cause is a court order compelling a party or individual named in a case to justify, prove or explain an issue in open court.
The cryptocurrency space, particularly the ICO market, is unfortunately replete with all sorts of scams and frauds, which have been extensively reported by CoinGeek. The Colorado state investigation, conducted by the state Department of Regulatory Agencies’ (DORA) Division of Securities, has described this case as part of a worrying “trend of allegedly fraudulent companies looking to make quick money.”
The companies were identified as Bionic Coin, Sybrelabs Ltd., and Global Pay Net, which is also known as GLPN Coin and GPN Token. According to DORA, the three companies made exaggerated and misleading statements to investors about their products.
Bionic Coin, which listed Forbes as a media partner, claimed it “will grow your money without any effort.” The site, which has no physical address or control person listed, promised people who will promote the project on social media and blogs that they will receive up to 10,000 BNC tokens per post.
Sybrelabs, allegedly based in Cambridgeshire, England, promotes an unregistered security to residents in Colorado. According to state authorities, Sybrelabs utilizes an investment pool, which reportedly allowed for trading on crypto exchanges through what was advertised as a “cryptoarbitrage robot.”
Global Pay Net is described as a company that marketed an ICO to raise money for an app that would create “an international, blockchain-based financial platform.” The company allegedly sells GLPN Coins, which are “full-value assets that represent one’s share in the business,” promising investors that they will “receive 80 percent of the company’s profits.” The site also lists multiple crypto professionals, two of whom have denied involvement in the project.
The three companies have been ordered to immediately stop selling their unregistered securities to residents in Colorado area, according to DORA.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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