Bagikan artikel ini
'Roaches': SEC Chief Speaks Out Against Malicious ICOs
An official with the US Securities and Exchange Commission addressed ICOs in off-the-cuff remarks at an event this week.
Oleh Rachel-Rose O'Leary
A member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) division of enforcement has spoken out against malicious initial coin offerings (ICOs).
In seemingly off-the-cuff remarks at a panel discussion in New York on Tuesday, SEC co-director Steven Peikin claimed that such sales could pose a threat to retail investors, a problem which the SEC is now trying to address according to Reuters.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Most notably, he compared those seeking to leverage the blockchain use case improperly to cockroaches.
Peikin reportedly told attendees:
"As with any kind of newsworthy event, roaches kind of crawl out of the woodwork and try to scam money off of investors."
The comments follow an escalation of regulatory announcements on ICOs, with the SEC recently ruling tokens may be be classified as securities (though such decisions are being made case-by-case). Since then, Canada, China and Hong Kong have followed suit, with only China taking aggressive steps to ban ICOs altogether.
On the heels of those announcements, the SEC is said to be targeting bad actors in the space, with Peikin indicating this responsibility has fallen to the agency's distributed ledger technology group, launched in 2013.
In recent weeks, that group has taken action against ICOs still in development, with the SEC putting a particular emphasis on publicly traded companies. Various other SEC investigations on fraudulent ICOs are underway, Peikin reportedly stated.
According to CoinDesk data, ICOs have raised $1.8 billion all-time as of August.
Steven Peikin image via the SEC
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Mehr für Sie
Why Dogecoin’s drop below $0.13 is drawing institutional attention
DOGE's short-term direction depends on holding above the $0.1290–$0.1280 zone, with $0.1300 as immediate resistance.
Was Sie wissen sollten:
- Dogecoin experienced a sharp selloff, losing 5.5% and breaking critical technical levels, which signals a shift in short-term market structure.
- The decline was driven by increased selling pressure amid weaker risk sentiment and thinner liquidity, with volume surging 267% above average.
- DOGE's short-term direction depends on holding above the $0.1290–$0.1280 zone, with $0.1300 as immediate resistance.
Top Stories
