Unregistered $25.5 Million ICO Issuer to Return Money for Distribution to Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against blockchain services company BitClave PTE Ltd. headquartered in San Jose, California, for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO) of digital asset securities. BitClave agreed to settle the charges by returning proceeds from the offering and paying additional monetary relief to be distributed to investors through a Fair Fund. According to the SEC’s order, from June to November 2017, BitClave raised over $25 million by selling its Consumer Activity Tokens (CAT) to approximately 9,500 investors, including investors in the U.S. The order finds that, as explained in its offering materials, BitClave planned to use the ICO proceeds to develop, administer, and market a blockchain-based search platform for targeted consumer advertising.