<div class="subtitle"><p>Recently, many entrepreneurs have turned their attention to Malta as an attractive jurisdiction for establishing crypto-projects and conducting an ICO. First of all, such an interest in Malta is caused by the adoption of a new, truly innovative legislation in the field of cryptocurrency business regulation. While many countries of the world passively look at what is happening, while others openly prohibit operations with cryptocurrency, Malta is trying to ensure full regulation for them.</p><p>The government of Malta does not hide that it intends to turn the state into “Blockchain Island” or a real “Cryptocurrency Valley”. The culmination of efforts in this direction was the approval by Parliament of three laws to regulate the blockchain sphere:</p><p>1. <strong>The Digital Innovations Act</strong> - provides for the establishment of a special agency that will be responsible for the development of the blockchain industry in Malta and monitor the implementation of government decisions in this area;<br />2. <strong>The Law on Innovative Technologies and Services</strong> is necessary to determine the legal status of agreements made on the blockchain;<br />3. Act on<strong> Virtual Financial Assets</strong> - governs the holding of an ICO in Malta.<br />In November 2018, these laws will come into force. It should be noted that these laws are largely aimed at protecting the interests of investors, therefore, a great responsibility falls on crypto business owners.</p><p><strong>ICO in Malta</strong></p><p>If you are interested in the possibility of holding an ICO in Malta, then, first of all, you should pay attention to the requirements of the Act on Virtual Financial Assets.<br />Before planning an ICO, you should decide on the type of token:</p><p>1. stock tokens;<br />2. user tokens;<br />3. token electronic money.</p><p>Tokens, under Maltese law, fall under the category of “virtual digital asset”. If your token represents securities, then the same requirements will apply to them as for an IPO. You have to spend a lot of time and effort to ensure compliance with the law. This is a very long and expensive process that is not always profitable.<br />The simplest and most profitable option is the ICO of user tokens (utility token). This is a type of tokens, which has value only within the framework of this platform - a kind of domestic currency.</p><p><strong>ICO planning custom tokens in Malta</strong></p><p>The process of implementing ICO utility tokens consists of the following steps:</p><p><strong>1. Company Registration in Malta</strong></p><p><strong>2. Purpose of the VFA Agent</strong></p><p>In accordance with the law, a VFA agent is “a person registered with the Competent Authority in accordance with the Law and authorized to carry out professional actions as:</p><p>1. a lawyer, accountant or auditor; or<br />2. firm of lawyers, accountants, auditors, or providers of corporate services; or<br />3. a legal organization that is fully owned and controlled by the persons mentioned in the first two paragraphs.</p><p>In practice, a VFA agent is a company that has passed the special certification of a local regulator. The VFA agent is of great importance since it is through him that all communication with the regulator takes place. Due to the limited number of available VFA agents, their services may be too high. Therefore, to date, holding an ICO in Malta can be beneficial only for large projects that are ready for certain costs for the sake of registration in a solid jurisdiction with a good reputation.</p><p><strong>3. Preparing Whitepaper (WP)</strong></p><p>The Law on Virtual Financial Assets contains requirements for Whitepaper, the most important document for an ICO. This document should contain the information necessary for investors to objectively assess the prospects of the issuer, the proposed project, and the virtual financial asset.<br />Information should be presented in an easily analyzed and understandable form in English. In total, the law contains 47 points that need to be reflected in WP, first of all, these are:</p><p>• description of the technical solution;<br />• business description, target markets, token purpose.</p><p>Thus, the interests of investors are protected. The issuer of tokens provides a detailed description of their project and is responsible to investors for the implementation of each of them. The WP document must be signed by the company director, the VFA agent and the regulator.</p><p>Subsequently, the company conducting the ICO should ensure that all marketing promises comply with WP clauses. Otherwise, companies may face sanctions, including quite large fines.<br />Also, the company issuing tokens in Malta must have AML requirements (anti-money laundering and terrorist financing): evaluate counterparties, investors and transactions, check the legal origin of funds and regularly conduct a risk analysis. Today, Malta can be interesting and beneficial in terms of location for conducting ICOs only to large projects for which reputation is important and who are willing to go for quite high costs. However, over time, as soon as the system is tested in practice and fully operational, Malta can indeed become a cryptocurrency valley, offering the most favorable conditions for the crypto-business.</p><p></p><p></p><p><a href="https://offshorewealth.info">Source</a></p></div>