Spain watchdog warns against fraud ICO

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Spain’s financial markets regulator has warned the public against a fraudulent ICO issuer. The Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CMNV) added AlyCoin to its list of blacklisted firms. In its warning, the regulator stated that it has not authorized the firm to offer any financial services in the country.

According to the notice, AlyCoin violated Article 17 of the country’s Securities Markets Law by providing investment services including investment advice and other auxiliary services related to financial instruments.

AlyCoin is an Ethereum-based token that claims to use a smart contract guarantee system. According to its website, the company is ready to release 82.3 million tokens to the market. In its ICO, which is still ongoing, AlyCoin intends on selling 35 million tokens, with the price starting at $0.1 each. The ICO reportedly kicked off in December 2018, and will end on December 24, 2019.

The token is touted to have various applications including in shopping, where you can earn rewards and a token-powered social media platform. It also promises to use 10% of its profits in a foundation for social good.

The company did acknowledge that it wasn’t authorized to operate in some countries. In its terms and conditions, it states, “AlyCoin is not responsible for the use of these applications in countries such as the United States of America, Brazil, Canada, Mexico or the United Arab Emirates, as a company it is prohibited to perform any type of work that has to do with AlyCoin in the mentioned countries.”

Nevertheless, AlyCoin claims to be ready to work with regulators and to fully comply with securities laws in various jurisdictions.

The CMNV joins other financial watchdogs in calling out crypto projects that they either believe to be fraudulent or incompliant. Recently, the U.K. financial regulator called out a MidPoint Exchange clone that claimed to offer investment services in cryptos, stocks and forex. Malta’s Financial Services Authority has also warned the public against the recurrent Bitcoin Revolution scam. The scam was discovered as far back as January, but it has reinvented itself under different names as it continues to target investors in Malta.