Mission
Cpollo aims to offer an easier, safer, and more efficient way for customers and businesses to participate in an Initial Coin offering (ICO), a Parallel Coin Offering (PCO), or for new or existing projects to leverage the transparency and resources the Cpollo platform will offer.
Vision
Cpollo will be the catalyst for projects, exchanges and communities to collaborate, creating an ecosystem where transparency, accountability, communication, and expertise go handin-hand to set a standard in the industry.
The Dark Side of Cryptocurrencies
There is no shortage of individuals or companies looking to prey upon the naïve or unsuspecting investor. Even the most seasoned investors are not protected from the long list of tools criminals use to take advantage of individuals in this market: ponzi schemes, phishing scams, identity theft, and “pump and dump” groups, just to name a few.
Many independent researchers and groups have performed their own due diligence in uncovering the rampant fraud in the industry. A study performed by SATIS Group, prepared for Bloomberg, determined that 78% of ICO’s started in 2017 were fraudulent or “scams”.
The three largest scams collected a staggering $1.3 billion from unsuspecting investors. ¹ The overarching message of the study is clear: cryptocurrency has become synonymous with the words “fraud” or “scams” due to lack of transparency and proper vetting processes.
The Wall Street Journal performed an analysis in May of 2018 that reviewed the documents of 1,450 digital coin offerings and “found 271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive teams.” ² Joseph Rotunda, Director of the Enforcement Division at the Texas State Securities Board, spoke at the FTC Decrypting Cryptocurrency Scams Workshop in 2018 detailing his department’s findings of an undercover investigation of public solicitations to invest in ICOs. His department’s goal was to better understand the penetration of the solicitation and how it was affecting the residents of Texas.
After 30 days, the department opened 32 separate investigations, which led to 10 law enforcement actions (with many more pending, and open investigations still ongoing). One of the main factors in determining deceit was the number of projects whose whitepaper depicted amazing products, ideas, promises, but had no accountable party, since the team remained anonymous. ³
Any individual interested in cryptocurrency or blockchain projects should ask themselves these questions: Who’s behind the company? Do they have experience? Where are they located? Are they legally registered to operate a business?
