Massachusetts Securities Division Blocks Five ICOs

On March 27, 2018, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, William Francis Galvin, issued consent orders regarding five companies that sought to conduct ICOs in the state. All five were ordered not to sell unregistered or non-exempt securities in Massachusetts.

The consent orders are available below:

Note: the 18moons Consent Order posted online is missing page 4.

Without going into full detail, here’s a snapshot of each company.

18moons

18moons is a Delaware-incorporated company that produces and distributes children’s programming. The company had planned an ICO for Ethereum-based Planet Kids Coins (PKCs) for February 2018.

Ostensibly PKCs would have been used “1) To activate a subscription to the existing Planet Kids Apps and Services” and “2) To submit content that, if selected, could be utilized in Planet Kids or ZOGO’s Adventure.”

In the initial run-up to the ICO, the company was covered by press including the Boston Globe, which wrote that 18moons “is engaged in a dance between utility and speculation. It is trying to show that cryptocurrencies have a genuine business purpose promoting uses of blockchain technology and are not just an investment fad.”

Across Platforms

Across Platforms is an advertising and analytics social television company (founded in 2010), which planned to create Ethereum-based ClickableTV tokens. The company apparently would have used collected funds to develop a platform which would “turn commercials on certain mediums into clickable ads where the viewer can purchase products using ClickableTV tokens.”

Its website still states, “Across Platforms has filed three patent applications for ClickableTV as of January 2018. The Company will be filing additional patent applications through out [sic] 2018.”  

Mattervest

As explained in the relevant consent order, Mattervest offered to pool funds to invest in a number of other ICOs. These included: BlockRx, HydroMiner, Gizer, OmegaOne, GIFTZ, 1776 Token, Token Report, and Caviar. It seems like Mattervest hoped to be something like a mutual fund for token investments.

Pink Ribbon

Per the consent order, Pink Ribbon was an ICO attempted by Daniel Cash, which purported to be a “publicly traded company on the blockchain that supports women and families facing financial burdens from cancer.” It’s not clear whether the project was ever anything more than a Facebook page, which now appears to have been taken down.

SparkCo

According to the consent order, SparkCo “planned to expand its existing freelance platform operations by pre-selling its services through an initial coin offering” for Ethereum-based Librium tokens (EQL).

A red footer on the Librium website now reads, “It appears you are accessing Librium from the United States of America. Unfortunately, the token offering is not available for US residents. You can still navigate the project but you will not be able to participate. Thank you.”

Matthew is a writer with a passion for emerging technology. Prior to joining ETHNews, he interned for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the OECD. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown University where he studied international economics. In his spare time, Matthew loves playing basketball and listening to podcasts. He currently lives in Los Angeles. Matthew is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews.

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