More Yhen 15% of crypto projects Have Serious Red flags:Wall steet journal

More Yhen 15% of crypto projects Have Serious Red flags:

According to nnew research form the wall street journal, more then 15% of crypto projects raising funds through initial coi offerings (ICOs) have serious red flag that should give investors pause. the investigation, which analyzed the whitepapers of 3,300 cryotcurrency offerings and ICOs launched in 2017 and 2018, found that 513 of them likely committed plagiarism, misresresented the identities of project founders, or promised unrealistic returns.

Significant number of crrypto projects are highly Questionable

The  examined the whitepapers of all 3300 projects which it found listed on ICOBench.com Tokendata.io, and ICORating.com To identify plagiarism, the reporters compared sentences in all the reports to find duplication, with reporters identifying over10,000 sentences that appeared more then once. the paper were also sreached to identify offerings where no team members were provided, and the publication reverse image sreached photos to identify fake teaqm listing. lacking or fraudulent team, foundewr , or sponsor details an investor scrutinizes for accuracy.

To find "improbable"promises of returns the whitepaper were keyword sreaced for critical marketing terms like "high return"and then analyzed manually before reporters decided they were an unrealistic "can'tmiss" opportunity.
of the 513,over 30 are already  under scrutiny by regulators,and over half of the project websites are unavailable websites was pinged  electronically and also checked manually.

The results are hardly surprising given other recent reports on the ICO market and intense regulatory scrutiny, and increasing measures, againts offerings. it,s true that many ICOs have faieled, many companies took advantage of a new funding model to launch less then credible projects and, many other projects have been judged scams.

Forrester resreach recently found that most  ICOs have stuggled to produce viable projects or adequately prepare for a cryptocurrency bear market.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been conducting an ever-increading program of clampdowns on ICOs In May, US and Canadian regulators launched 
"operation crypto Sweep"after concluuding that fraud was widespread. 
More recently the SEC has called for international support in continuing its enforcement as many ICO sponsors are located outside of the US but ofer investment opportunities is within the country. The global nature of cryptocurrencies is causing a similar problem in other regions. for the SEC, other recent measures inculding hitting celebrities who promoted ICO scams with fine and other enforcement actions. 


Change Ahead for 2019?
thatsaid, there are many very real projects to have been funded through an ICO mechanism, take the SIRIN Labe Finney and Brave Browser_both of wich have produced working products- as examples. on flip siad, fraudsters take advantage of all trendy investment calsses, not just cryptocurrency. 

SEC chaiman jay Clayton has received criticism in recent weeks that his harsh approach is restricting innovation. there is hpe that balance can found in 2019, that crediable projects will
 continue to innovate, and that the growing scrutiny on fraudulent offerings will begin to deter them. 

With increased attention from regulators, crypto startups are already moving away from ICOs seeking funding instead via more traditional routes of private and venture capital funding. others are looking to a new model, the security token offering (STO), 
seeking to bring themselves into complaince rather then eschew it.