Topic: [2017-10-23] The Wolf of Wall Street Thinks Some ICOs Are 'The Biggest Scam Ever - page 2. (Read 9827 times)

There are really a lot of ICO this year. They are like mushrooms popping out like every month. But its really hard to filtered which one is good and which one is not. Maybe the Wolf of Wall Street has a point here because we can't really deny the fact that a lot of them have scammed us. Regulations are coming, even China and South Korea has banned ICO because of the very same reason that some unscrupulous personalities are just having this fund raising to really screw up investors money.

Yes. Already the overcrowding and the difficulty in raising will hopefully slow down scammers trying to get into the space.
It will take a few months for effect though.
I think by mid 2018 we should see a more balanced approach to ICOs

We easily can call 2017 as year of ICO. Among all those ICO that's are a lot of scam, mostly because of this area of business is still not regulated, but the process of regulating finelly began and I think it's good. Investors should to be protected from scammers.
I am agree with you that the idea of ICO is great, but we all need to learn to use if for good.

I think I agree to this one.. Most ICO are scamming,, I don’t know how to call this cryptocurrency investors who are feeding this projects and after a week will post scam accusations and then a new ICO will open and invest again.. I will not even call them investors but victims of this cruel virtual world.. I have seen much of it that’s why I never intended to work with them that has bad reputations.. But I work with a chosen promising ICO available..

There are many projects which are scams but uses Fiat. You can not effectively fight it. I like to think that the dollar is the same fraudulent ICO and many others. But the us government has a significant impact and therefore the pyramid is still alive. We may face the same problems. regulation the ICO will not give you a chance 100% to be sure that you are protected from fraud.

Actually he has a point. And we cryptocurrency enthusiast have seen countless ICO scams along the way. On the other hand, I don't know if there is a body that could really regulate it to prevent them from scamming investors. So it is still up to the us, investors to make a good decision and study every ICO that we are going to invest in so that we can't be scam after all. We need to used our good judgement and sometimes even a hunch if we are going to put out our money on another ICO again.

The question is where regulation comes from.
The more that we impose best practices and reduce the level of scams the better regulation will be for everyone.
If we do nothing as a community then the regulation will be draconian.

Actually we have to introduce them to regulations in order to avoid or at least reduce scams. This would help a lot!

There are many useless coins and many terrible ICOs but this is another example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
That does not mean that ALL are scams are useless.
ICO is a great tool.
We just have to learn how to use it

Well i agree with Mr Belfort. Giving away bitcoins in exchange for a brand new coin it's even worse than a shot in dark. How many cryptocurrencies exist, and how many have a reasonable value? Also there are tons of "fake" coins. They get the money and run-away.

In the chorus of voices warning against the fraudulent implications of many initial coin offerings (ICOs), here’s one that should stand out: that of convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort.

The “Wolf of Wall Street,” whose securities frauds were recounted in the film of the same name—where Belfort was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio—told the Financial Times that ICOs were “the biggest scam ever” and that they would “blow up [in investors’] faces.”

An ICO is a form of fundraising for startups, usually in the blockchain space, that gives investors tokens instead of shares. However, many of these startups do not have clear business plans. And while investors might hope that their tokens appreciate in value, as those in the bitcoin and Ethereum networks have done, that may not happen.

China famously banned ICOs, lumping them in with pyramid schemes. Canadian regulators have said that these token are securities that should be regulated. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned of pump-and-dump schemes, where companies don’t deliver the promised goods and cash out following a frenzied ICO.

By some measurements, ICOs have raised over $3 billion so far this year. And Belfort thinks their promoters are “perpetuating a massive scam of the highest order on everyone. “Probably 85% of people out there don’t have bad intentions, but the problem is, if 5% or 10% are trying to scam you, it’s a f**king disaster,” he told the FT.

“It is the biggest scam ever, such a huge gigantic scam that’s going to blow up in so many people’s faces,” he said, adding: “It’s far worse than anything I was ever doing.”

However, unlike the likes of Jamie Dimon, Belfort said there was nothing inherently wrong with the idea of cryptocurrencies.
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