New Jersey Securities Regulator Issues Stop Orders For Two Illegal ICOs, Zoptax and UNOcall

The Bureau of Security of New Jersey has recently informed local investors that it has taken action against two Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) based in the state, with the cooperation from the Administrators Association (NASAA). This was a part of the Cryptosweep operation, which is being headed by the NASAA.

Zoptax and UNOcall are the two companies that are being targeted by the regulators. They have received an official stop order from them and will have to shut down their ICOs in order to be compliant.

Gurbir S. Grewal, from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, affirmed that these companies were misleading investors with promised returns and that they were unregulated. For instance, they promised daily interest returns for people who staked their tokens. The returns went from 0.2 to 0.9%, which are considerably high and very unlikely to be attained.

According to him, crypto companies need to follow the same kind of scrutiny as other's do in the industry.  They do not get a special pass because they are from an innovative industry.

So far, Operation Cryptosweep has made several stops against fraudulent ICO's. The NASAA has already started 330 inquiries this year and took action on several cases. The initiative is part of a broader effort to clean up the crypto market and to make the financial stability of the U.S. stronger.

With the boom of ICOs in 2017 and their collapse in the following year, several scammers and illegal actors appeared in order to get quick profits from this market.

The NASAA is not alone in looking after illegal ICOs. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) are also prosecuting these projects.