It is now announced by China Government that ICO will be deemed as illegal in China. Here is a brief translation on China Ban:
1.) Understand the nature of ICO
ICO is an act of gathering investment through the offering of Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. The core of ICO is an illegal act of collecting investment, possible financial fraud and pyramid scheme. The virtual coins used shall not be taken as legal currency and should not be used in the market.
2.) No people or company are allowed to conduct illegal ICO
All ICO event should stopped with immediate effect. Completed ICO should return the investments back to the investors. Investigations will be carried out for ongoing ICO and completed ICO.
3.) Strengthen the management of Cryptocurrencies
At the time of announcement, all exchange platform for Cryptocurrencies will be closed immediately.
4.) Financial institutions is banned from provide Cryptocurrencies related services for ICO.
5.) Public awareness on the risk of investing Cryptocurrencies
6.) Financial institutions should follow the government rules and educate investors to maintain legal financial market.
Well, the key takeaway is that ICOs and trading platform related with Cryptocurrencies will be banned in China market for now. The market should be dropping (at least for 2 days+). Could be further down as the current trend is because of China news + BTC value correction.
However, in long term view, the regulation is actually a great move for blockchain development by reducing low quality ICOs. The quality ICOs with solid products will still thriving especially those that already having real world impacts with professional background.