According to foreign media news, Gibraltar will introduce the world's first ICO regulation. In fact, with the rapid development of the digital currency industry, regulatory issues have attracted the attention of central banks.

Generally speaking, the central bank will worry that digital currency will affect financial stability or bring risks to consumers, but each country has its own advantages and disadvantages in dealing with ICOs. There are securities regulations to regulate ICOs. Because of this, sometimes there is some legal uncertainty when it comes to cross-border ICO projects.

Companies involved in ICO usually provide investors with digital tokens in exchange for cash or digital currencies such as Bitcoin, which is completely different from traditional financing methods that provide company shares. In 2016, the total amount of global ICO financing was less than 82 million euros, but in 2017 it surged to 3.7 billion U.S. dollars. This unusual development speed has aroused the concerns of central bankers.

At present, the Gibraltar government and the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) have stated that the country’s lawmakers will discuss the draft ICO law in the next few weeks to further regulate ICO promotion, sales and distribution.

Gibraltar’s Financial Services Commission has revealed that this will be the world’s first digital token regulation.

Sian Jones, Senior Advisor to the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, said:

“A key element of digital token regulation is to introduce the concept of regulating authorized sponsors, who need to ensure that ICO projects comply with information disclosure and financial crime regulatory rules.”

The Gibraltar government and the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission also issued a joint statement stating that they will establish information disclosure rules based on relevant regulations, requiring anyone who purchases digital tokens to obtain sufficient, accurate and fair information.

Gibraltar’s move has already drawn the attention of regulators in many countries, such as the United Kingdom and Singapore, which may also introduce their own rules governing ICOs.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton (Jay Clayton) said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that digital tokens are securities and need to follow the same investor protection rules as stock issuance.