ICO Regulations & Crypto-Token Classifications By Switzerland

The Swiss Financial Market Authority published guidelines about ICO regulation. The purpose is to regulate the booming market to prevent money laundering, giving investors a higher degree of mutual trust.

Every ICO will be rated separately as each is at least a little different, and the tokens being offered have been divided into three categories:

Payment Tokens

These tokens must conform to current anti money laundering laws and won’t be considered securities.

Utility Tokens

These are created for products and services. Not securities as long as they are used in that way. Not regulated, but it’s doubtful any such purely utilitarian token exists.

Asset Tokens

They are considered asset tokens, if tokens produce dividends. They are considered as securities and will be regulated as such. The tokens will fall under civil law requirements, if the token acts as a company stock.

Most tokens are still hybrids of the above categories, so it’ll be very difficult to regulate them as exclusively a single type.

Switzerland has already been declared as a cryptocurrency heaven, while countries like China are banning cryptocurrency transactions. The Swiss Minister of Economy said the country intends to become a “crypto-nation”.

Will update later on the news.