The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has put out a warning about criminals participating in frauds hyped as “digital currency,” “blockchain” and “financial innovation,” Cryptovest reported. In a statement, the bank and other Chinese agencies said that many activities related to crypto and the blockchain “are not really based on blockchain technology but are hyping the blockchain concept to raise funds illegally.”
While the statement didn’t say what actions would be taken to prevent such activities, the agencies wanted to make retail investors aware of crypto and blockchain-related scams. The bank, however, did mention that frauds may use phrases such as “high return, low risk” and “the value will only rise.”
In other news, Indiegogo has canceled its initial coin offering (ICO) following a $5.2-million raise and says it’s returning funds to investors, TheNextWeb reported. Recent changes in regulation appear to be behind the move: While the company said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has provided “multiple comments” in regards to utility and security tokens, it has not provided guidance formally.
In a message obtained by TNW sent in July, Indiegogo token partner MicroVentures said,“while we believe the initial path taken was compliant, we have decided the best way to ensure compliance is to unwind the investment opportunity and return investor capital.” In addition, MicroVentures said that investments were not “distributed to the company.”
And the SEC plans to review a staff decision to prevent exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) based on bitcoin from launching, Reuters reported. On Wednesday (August 22), agency staff rejected applications by three companies for new funds. While SEC staff can make decisions on applications through delegated authority, the agency’s chairman and commissioners do have the power to review a decision.
In other news, Mt. Gox creditors are reportedly able to submit proof of their claims through a rehabilitation process that was recently approved, Coindesk reported. Mt. Gox Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi said that creditors have a deadline of October 22 to file their proof. In a different document, the trustee said, “the planned deadline for the Rehabilitation Trustee to submit a statement of approval or rejection to the court is January 24, 2019, but, at the current point in time, a definite date has not been determined.”
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