The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has launched an investigation that focuses on crypto startup Envion AG. According to a press release issued on July 26, Envion AG is suspected of breaking the financial market laws by conducting a $100 million ICO back in January 2018.
“Investigations carried out by FINMA to date indicate that in the context of its ICO, Envion AG accepted funds amounting to approximately one hundred million francs from more than 30,000 investors in return for issuing EVN tokens in a bond-like form,” the press release noted.
No further statements have been made on behalf of the FINMA. Nonetheless, the regulator added that even though it supports companies launch their ICO projects, it will not hesitate to take action against any type of ICO that fails to meet the law requirements. The regulator won’t be making any comments until the investigation is formally terminated.
ICOs are undoubtedly one of the most efficient ways of investing in cryptocurrency and have seen a very big rise in popularity over the past few years. ICOs are currently suffering from a bad reputation thanks to a large number of scams usually associated with them. Currently, the situation with ICO scams is so out of hand that they are even banned in various countries.
Envion, the Swiss-based blockchain-mining project, has recently had its fair share of controversy, as earlier this year its founders turned on each other with accusations of fraud.
ICOs in Switzerland
Since Switzerland is now regarded as one of the most crypto-friendly countries, it’s no wonder that more and more problems are starting to arise in the crypto community.
Currently, the Swiss authorities are required to make their presence known as more and more crypto startups are neglecting or are trying to bend the current laws. FINMA is currently working with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and other banking institutions and associations to find solutions to these problems.