Europe’s top markets regulator has warned investors about the pitfalls of buying newly issued crypto coins, an experimental and unregulated form of online crowd funding particularly used by start-up businesses.
The European Securities and Markets Watchdog (ESMA) said on Monday such Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were unregulated, volatile, not transparent and technologically untested.
“ICOs are extremely risky and highly speculative investments,” the agency said, adding there was a risk of “the total loss of your investment”.
“Many of the coins or tokens … have no intrinsic value other than … to use them to access or use a service/product,” said the agency, warning coin issuers they may be subject to existing regulations…
Read Full: EU markets agency warns new crypto coins could prove worthless
