New Self-Regulatory Body Aims to Develop ICO Standards

Blockchain platform Waves is launching a self-regulatory body to set standards for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and the blockchain industry.

Announced in a blog post yesterday, the association will see participation from entities including Deloitte CIS, the ICO Governance Foundation and the Ethereum Competencies Centre, and aims to set legal, tax and accounting, KYC and business due-diligence standards for the industry.

Based in Switzerland, the body will be open to ICO platforms, exchanges, blockchain platforms and professional services companies, among others.

According to Alexander Ivanov, CEO and founder of Waves Platform, regulations are "clearly an emerging phenomenon and concern" in the industry. "We want a seat at the table to be able to shape the future of regulation in the ICO and blockchain space," he said.

The association will be blockchain-agnostic and will work with the ICO Governance Foundation to provide guidance on best practices for projects launching token sales, the release states.

Artem Tolkachev, Deloitte CIS blockchain practice leader, said:

"In my opinion, tokenisation of the economy and cryptocurrency fund raising are some of this year's key trends and will remain so for several years to come ... We fully support the goals of the proposed organization and believe this infrastructure is vital at this stage of the ICO market development."

Waves indicated that the association will be registered and operational in Switzerland by the start of next year.

Wooden blocks image via Shutterstock