Today, the Securities and Exchange Division announced it had halted an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) as an unregulated securities offering. Munchee, a food review App based on Blockchain, agreed to refund all investors without accepting nor denying the allegation. The ICO was seeking $15 million in a highly hyped offer with claims the investment would deliver “199% GAINS on MUN token at ICO price”. On November 1, 2017, Munchee stopped all sales of the MUN tokens hours after being contacted by SEC.
The kicker here is the Munchee enforcement action should put a halt to all US based token offerings that believe they are Utility tokens and thus do not need to file an appropriate securities exemption;
“Even if MUN tokens had a practical use at the time of the offering, it would not preclude the token from being a security. Determining whether a transaction involves a security does not turn on labelling – such as characterizing an ICO as involving a “utility token” – but instead requires an assessment of “the economic realities underlying a transaction.”
See below the SEC Order against Munchee, Inc. filed by the SEC today.
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