ICOs seek refuge in renowned tax havens: From Gibraltar to Isle of Man
From SafeHaven:
If there is something that the British love more than rainy days and
vinegar on their fries, it’s tax havens. And now, these tax havens are
racing to create supportive regulations for initial coin offerings
(ICOs).
As ICOs receive harsh criticism from the media and increased scrutiny
from governments, there is no doubt that these offerings may be the
most controversial form of funding ever. Due in part to the incredible
amount of money being generated.
Former Mozilla CEO Brenden Eich chose a new path of fundraising when
launching his free, open sourced, safety-focused web browser, Brave. Instead of borrowing money or selling equity to investors, Eich chose to create an ICO.
Within 30 seconds of launching his ICO, the Ethereum-based Basic Attention Token (BAT) generated $35-million worth of ETH between only 130 investors. One buyer even dropped a whopping 20,000 ETH ($4.7-million) on the ICO.
Most of the time, it works out for very well investors, too. Because
many ICOs start with a low valuation, there have been a number of
success stories seeing coins go from a fraction of a cent to several
dollars within weeks.
In 2017 alone, ICOs have raised over $2.3 billion for
new startups. Nearly 4 times as much money for startups as traditional
venture capital endeavors for tech companies. And that’s during a time
when VCs are booming.
Because there is so much money being thrown around, however, it has also drawn the attention of some more nefarious acts.
With ICOs still in a sort of gray area, there have been instances of
pump and dump schemes, laxed security which has left investors’ funds
vulnerable, and startups promising ideas which are either undeliverable
or add little to no potential for a return on investments. For these
reasons, governments have been scrambling to take action.
While larger governments such as China and the United States have
taken a more cut and dry approach, smaller governments are looking
towards more supportive regulations.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the coast of
Spain. The territory’s economy is dominated by financial services, due
primarily to its 10% fixed corporate tax rate. The low tax rate and UN
status make The Rock a favorite among small businesses.
As early as 2016, Gibraltar took an agreeable stance on
cryptocurrencies, even hosting a bitcoin exchange-traded instrument
(ETI) traded on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSE).
While the territory has been working on supportive regulations since
2016, in May 2017, The Rock released a comprehensive draft on the
proposed framework which has since drawn crypto-
heavyweights Xapo and Coinsilium.
And in September, the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission announced
the GSE’s plans to integrate blockchain technology into the trading and
settlement processes of its stock exchange in partnership with Cyberhub
Fintech, a Sydney-based cybersecurity firm.
In a statement, the GSE noted:
The investment signals the Gibraltar Stock Exchange’s continued
commitment to expand its capital markets network and influence in Asia
as well as its ambition to become one of the world’s first regulated
exchanges to fully integrate use of blockchain into its operational
processes from ICO to IPO....
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