Monetary Authority of Singapore rebukes ICO issuer over unauthorised LinkedIn ad
An initial coin offering (ICO) issuer has been warned not to proceed with its securities token offering in Singapore after it breached a Securities and Futures Act (SFA) by taking out an advertisement on LinkedIn.
MAS said the exemption from prospectus registration is subject to conditions, including a requirement not to advertise the offer
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the ICO issuer, which it did not name, failed to get a prospectus exemption under the SFA, which allows an issuer to make an offer of securities to accredited investors without registering a prospectus with MAS, by relying on an exemption under the SFA.
According to the MAS, the exemption from prospectus registration is subject to conditions, including a requirement not to advertise the offer, which the ICO issuer breached when it put out a public LinkedIn post calling attention to the offer.
"The issuer, in this case, failed to comply with the advertising restriction when its legal advisers put out a LinkedIn post,” said MFA. “As such, the issuer would not be able to rely on the exemption from prospectus registration.”
Lee Boon Ngiap, the assistant managing director for capital markets at MAS, added some offers may be made without a prospectus if they are limited to a restricted group of persons or to those who have "the means to look after their own interests".
Once an offer is made to the public, however, a prospectus is required to ensure that investors are provided with all the information to make informed investment decisions.
A total of eight digital token exchanges in Singapore have been warned by MAS in the past to not allow trading in digital tokens that are securities or futures contracts without its authorisation.