Simon Zenios and Co LLC is a law firm based in Cyprus which has been active in the fields of ICOs and Blockchain Legal Services

The Rise of ICOs.

The last couple of years have undoubtedly seen a meteoric rise in the number of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s) globally in what has now surely become the newest trend for startups, but also established companies to raise money or to fund their projects.

The numbers are still growing exponentially. To put this into context, in 2017 we saw ICO’s raise $5.6 Billion but this number represents only those ICO’s which were successful in 2017. In comparison, ICO’s in 2018 have already passed last year’s total and have collectively raised $6.3 Billion just in the first three months of the year! One can only imagine what the numbers will look like at the end of 2018.

Why are ICO’s so popular?

Firstly, because they are a new form of crowdfunding which has already bridged the gap between companies wishing to raise capital and normal people from all corners of the world and all walks of life to invest their own capital in projects which they believe in, something which was not possible through traditional IPOs where such investing privileges were limited exclusively to venture capitalists.

Secondly, companies or startups fund their ICOs by issuing digital cryptographic tokens based on blockchain technology, a technology which promises to change the way the world works by providing highly secure decentralized platforms onto which companies can implement their projects. The key word is decentralization, i.e. the world will slowly be moving away from systems where all power is centralized.

The Future of ICOs

The rising numbers in funding raised by ICOs undoubtedly show two things. Firstly, that ICOs are gaining popularity and establishing themselves as trusted fundraising methods and secondly, such numbers and trends are difficult to ignore by the global market, indicating that one way or another ICOs and blockchain technology are here to stay.

Running ICO’s in Cyprus   

While there are of course many popular jurisdictions for running ICOs, in our experience Cyprus offers some significant advantages which cannot be overlooked. Testament to this is the fact that Cyprus has been one of the more popular jurisdictions for running ICOs.

Cyprus is of course an EU Member State with a modern and very attractive tax regime which is approved by the EU and as a result Cyprus has a ‘white list’ status among tax authorities globally. Any company running its ICO in Cyprus will be privy to all the advantages which the jurisdiction has to offer as well as the fact that, at this moment in time ICOs are for the most part unregulated within the EU which gives the advantage of freedom of enterprise.

ICO and Blockchain Legal Services

Today marks just over a year since our law firm Simon Zenios & Co LLC began offering its Legal Services and expertise in the field of ICOs, a relatively new and rapidly developing area of legal practice. In this past year, we have helped several of our clients who required our services in running their ICOs successfully as well as attended numerous ICO and blockchain events not just in Cyprus, Europe and Dubai.

In the past year we have definitely learned a lot throughout the process, including what distinct problems ICOs are faced with, especially when applying to get registered on the exchanges. We’ve found that the reasons for the problems are mostly due to poor foundations, non-transparency and lack of credibility.

The process of running an ICO also presents legal implications in regards to token design which cannot be overlooked. Depending on its design, your ICO’s token may be considered a financial instrument and could thus be subject to financial regulation. This is why it is vitally important to have legal advice and support throughout the process.    

We are of course one of the few firms with knowledge in the Blockchain and ICO space and are thus in a position to advise, assist and protect the interest of our clients.

Our Law Firm has the capacity to provide A to Z legal services for ICO start–ups and or already developed Blockchain Legal Entities!

Visit now Simon Zenios and Co LLC website:  https://www.advocatescyprus.com