Major regulatory authorities in China have jointly issued a statement calling for immediate cease of initial coin offering (ICO) activities in the country.

Seven regulators including the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said that tokens or virtual currency are not issued by any monetary authority, do not have legal and monetary properties, do not have legal status equivalent to money, and cannot and should not be circulated as a currency in the market use.

The statement said (as translated by CoinDesk):

“ICO financing refers to the activity of an entity raising virtual currencies, such as bitcoin or ethereum, through illegally selling and distributing tokens. In essence, it is a kind of non-approved illegal open fund raising behavior, suspected of illegal sale tokens, illegal securities issuance and illegal fund-raising, financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other criminal activities.”

The departments not only call for immediate halt of such activities, but also state that those who have completed ICO should make arrangements to refund the same.

“As of the date of this announcement, all types of currency issuance financing activities shall cease immediately.

“Persons or organizations who have completed ICOs shall refund the investors, protect the investors' rights, and deal with the risks properly…People who refuse to cease ICO activities or refuse to refund investors will be investigated and severely punished according to the law."

It further states:

“As of the date of this announcement, trading platforms shall not conduct any exchange business between fiat money and tokens, shall not provide information and price for token trading.”

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