FXStreet just reported that an island in the Caribbeans, Anguilla, is to become the first regulatory body of ICOs. The government of the Caribbean nation is considering the Anguilla Token Offering Act, or AUTO, which would establish the world’s first registration process for new cryptocurrencyofferings.
The Chief Minister of Anguilla, Victor Banks, commented on the idea:
“We believe this new AUTO Act will help Anguilla become the leader in establishing best practices for cryptocurrency offerings, to protect the people of Anguilla and the participating public. We believe the AUTO Act would be a significant step in the right direction to provide clearly defined rules and increased safety for the blockchain community.”
It is interesting that even before there was anything like cryptocurrencies, the Caribbean nation was the host of the first International Conference on Financial Cryptography in the 1990s, which really sparked the cryptocurrency hype on the island.
Although ICOs are currently not regulated, a lot of government bodies and central banks are “pulling back” on numerous opportunities related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies for fears of lack of regulation and overall monitoring.
Now, if Anguilla is to become the first ICO regulator, its trustworthy jurisdiction can help boost the cryptocurrency popularity not only on the island, but in the whole world.
According to FXStreet, a U.K. territory that’s seeking to regulate future ICOs will likely help bring legitimacy to the exciting but murky investing environment, commented Lonnie Hobson, Anguilla’s deputy registrar of commercial activity.
“We want to be the first regulatory regime of specific categories of cryptocurrency and non-security tokens. There are 1,200-plus ICOs that have come out recently and they want a place that is a strong regulatory regime and is more trusted.”
With the ICO market currently exploding, with thousands of ICOs being launched every month, from Water Token to Milk Coin, a regulatory body will relax the concerns of government heads and central banks. However, just as some believe that the deregulation is the reason why so many people are backing up projects through ICOs, a possible regulation on the product can significantly hurt their “popularity”.