Crypto's Biggest ICOs Stay Silent on SEC Subpoenas

After rumors began to fly late last week that the SEC has been sending out subpoenas to initial coin offerings, some of the biggest projects to yet utilize the funding mechanism have remained tight-lipped, refraining from public commentary.

CoinDesk has so far reached out to the 14 best-known issuers that have raised $50 million or more through their token sales, asking whether they had received a subpoena or request for information letter.

Only one person has admitted to receiving a subpoena, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, who raised $100 million to start crypto hedge fund, Arrington XRP Capital.

A spokesperson for the issuer, which raised $108 million through the sale of its Qash token, said it had not been subject to a subpoena or a request for information.

While Bancor, which raised $153 million selling its BNT tokens, a spokesperson indicated it had "Nothing to report" to CoinDesk, suggesting it had not received a subpoena.

TenX, which raised $80 million during its token sale, declined to comment via a spokesperson and so did Kik, which raised $98 million in its Kin token sale.

Nabil Naghdy, the COO of Status, which raised $107 million for its Status Network Token, similarly dodged directly answering questions about receiving a subpoena.

One, whose token sale for EOS is ongoing, with current estimates at $700 million, also said the company's token wasn't offered in the U.S. but did not respond directly about a subpoena.

High-profile token issuer, Protocol Labs Founder Juan Benet, whose company raised $257 million from its Filecoin token sale, told CoinDesk, "As a policy, we do not comment on legal questions that we have not explicitly decided to comment on beforehand. This is not specific to SEC, it's very broad and comes from our legal team's policies."

Those issuers included: Blockstack, which raised $50 million for its stax token; Opskins, which raised $68 million for its wax token; GameCredits, which raised $53 million for its mobilego token; Polkadot, which raised $145 million for its dot token; Sirin Labs, which raised $157 million for its srn token; and Tezos, which raised $232 million for its tezzie token.