Thoughts from Binance Blockchain Week

Many interesting events over the past few weeks in Singapore, with the biggest one being the Binance Week.

So, what did we take away from these events? We did have a lot of interesting meetings during the events. Being a Singapore based exchange with a high focus on compliance sort of attracts many players in the field these days. We did formalize several agreements that we will see the result of during the next few months. But we also got a very good picture of where the industry is these days. ICO’s are NOT dead, they are simply fewer and better. This I do believe we can thank the ongoing regulatory talks for. We also heard that many of the old ones are struggling. Some are shutting down while others are downsizing and cutting cost. The wild-west of 2017 is definitely over, and the entire bearish 2018 has made its marks.

Also a lot of ongoing talks about security tokens and security offerings. We also note that by the increased amount of “STO advisors” popping up on LinkedIn and various other channels. Be careful is the only thing I want to add here. Securities are already heavily regulated, and just because you did an ICO in 2017/2018 It does not mean you have the skills to handle securities. We at COSS have clearly stated that we are monitoring the evolvement of STO’s, but for those that think we can turn a switch to trade security tokens, you are VERY wrong.

If you stepped wrong during an ICO, you might end up with a lousy product, not the correct team/staff and/or many other reasons to fails, but step wrong in an STO and it might be a criminal offense. Seek proper legal guidance and proceed with caution.

We also attended other events more specific to STO’s with a more legal presence in the panel discussions. These events were very interesting and it is definitely the “flavor of the month” here in Singapore.

Rounded up these events by listening to the very skilled Karthik Iyer at the Science Park talking about tokenomics, STO’s and the various types of token models during his 2-hour masterclass on the subject. Highly recommended session.