This article was published on March 6, 2019

Israel regulators support ‘heavily regulated’ cryptocurrency trading platform

It's another step for STOs


Israel regulators support ‘heavily regulated’ cryptocurrency trading platform

An Israeli financial market regulator has given its recommendation for the creation of a heavily regulated cryptocurrency issuance platform, Reuters reports.

According to the report, such a platform should allow companies to “raise money by issuing digital tokens to investors.”

If you were starting to think this sounds like a securities offering, you’d probably be right.

Alongside recommendations of creating a specialist platform, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) suggests applying already existing securities laws to digital assets like securities tokens and cryptocurrencies.

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The ISA has not yet declared a timeline for the creation of such a platform, Reuters states.

With all that in mind, if Israel does pursue this recommendation, it’s wholly likely that it will set some global precedent when it comes to security token offerings (STOs), as the rest of the world is looking at each other before making the first move.

Earlier this year the Thai National Legislative Assembly gave the approval for the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to let Thailand-based companies issue tokenized securities. In Liechtenstein, businesses already can offer securities tokens.

But whether this potential precedent will assist global adoption of blockchain for STOs remains to be seen. A sizable portion of the world is still waiting for the US SEC to make their move.

Want to find out more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology? Check out our Hard Fork track at TNW 2019!

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