Call for Rule-making on ICO
Proposal by ICO Business Research Group

April 5, 2018
Center for Rule-making Strategies
Tama UniversityI.

PrefaceIn recent years, ICO (Initial Coin Offering), which is a means of issuing tokens in exchange
for cryptocurrency, has been drawing a great deal of attention as a new way of capital raisingand investment. However, it should be noted that the legal position of ICO is unclear andtax/accounting issues related to ICO remain in a large scale. In some cases, measures forinvestor protection are not sufficient. Such issues are considered problematic throughout theworld.
ICO is still in its infancy and has no industry practices yet. Appropriate rules must be set toenable ICO to obtain public trust and to expand as a sound and reliable financing method.
Based on a shared awareness of this necessity, financial institutions, non-financial
companies, and venture companies have co-founded the ICO Business Research Group.
This report proposes rules needed to establish ICO as a sustainable financing method basedon discussions conducted by the research group.

II. Members of the Research GroupThe members of the Research Group consist of experts from various industries andspecialized fields.

The members conducted discussions from November 2017 to March2018.

Chair:

Toshifumi Kokubun, Professor, Tama Graduate School ofBusiness; Managing Director, Center for Rule-making
Strategies

General Adviser:

Takuya Hirai, Member of the House of Representatives /Chairman, Special Mission Committee on IT Strategy, LDP

Head of the Secretariat:

Yasuyuki Ogyu, Director, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC

Expert Advisers
Legal Adviser:

So Saito, Representative lawyer, So Law Office

Accounting / Tax Advisers:

Toshikazu None, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC andYukinori Fujii, Partner, Deloitte Tohmatsu Tax Co.

Technical Adviser:

Yuzo Kano, Co-Founder and CEO, bitFlyer, Inc.
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Member companies (in alphabetical order)
CrowdWorks Inc
Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc.
Daiwa Securities Group Inc.
GMO Payment Gateway, Inc.
JTB Corp.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.
Nomura Holdings, Inc.
NTT DOCOMO, INC.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group,Inc.
SUMITOMO CORPORATIONTokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.
VOYAGE GROUP Inc.

III. Definition of terms
In this report, terms are defined as follows:

Token: A unit of value which is electronically issued by an issuer to an investor
in exchange for payment of cryptocurrency
 The paid cryptocurrency does not need one of those defined in thePayment Services Act

Listing: An act of including a token in the list of tokens that can be traded at a
cryptocurrency exchange

Preliminary sales: An act of issuing tokens to investors before they are listed

Of the acts of issuing tokens to many unspecified investors in exchange for payments ofcryptocurrency, ICO refers to the initial issuance of a token (in many cases, when a token islisted at a cryptocurrency exchange) in the strict sense. In this report, however, ICO refers toall financing activities using a cryptocurrency, including preliminary sale activities.

2IV. Potential ICO use cases
Currently, the main entities (issuers) conducting ICO are Internet-related venture companies
or projects. However, there is a possibility that issuers, purposes and schemes of ICO deals
will diversify in the future. Though it is difficult at present to classify whole ICO since many
forthcoming but unknown types might exist, there are three potential ICO use cases for thefuture from the view point of issuers. Of course, these are just use case examples that canbe assume at this point and we do not intend to exclude the possibility of the emergence ofother new usages in the future.
Currently, main entities (issuers) conducting ICO are:Pattern 1: Venture Company Type
Concept:

Fund-raising by venture companies through high-risk, highreturn investments

Potential issuers:

Small venture companies that have difficulty in access toincumbent capital market, or venture capitals(E.g.) Local companies

Potential investors: Investors who are looking for high-risk, high-return investment
opportunities other than common equities

Pattern 2: Ecosystem type
Concept:

Fund-raising for collaborative efforts in which multiple
corporations such as companies and local governments areengaged

Potential issuers:

Combinations of companies or alliances of companies and local
governments that are making concerted efforts to form a new3

market through an ecosystem(E.g.) Hydrogen society initiatives, construction of humanrights-conscious supply chains, emissions trading
Potential investors: Companies that wish to participate in an ecosystem when themarket is formed (companies which own tokens are entitled toreceive an option to participate in the ecosystem withadvantageous terms)

Pattern 3: Large company type
Concept:

Fund-raising by companies for certain in-house projects withhigh risk

Potential issuers:

Companies that operate high-risk businesses for which
feasibility is difficult to evaluate, or those that try to find ways tovitalize buried in-house assets such as technologies(E.g.) Development of new products, creation of contents suchas video game soft

Potential investors: Investors who expect to receive special offer from companiesor those who want to express their support or sympathy forprojects

V. Proposal on rule-making
For the permeation and development of ICO, it would be desirable to set rules on “issuanceof tokens” and “trading of tokens in the issue market.” As for the purchase and sale of tokens
in the trading market, there are certain rules set force in the Payment Services Act. However,there are no laws or regulations stipulating explicit rules for issue markets, which leads tocases of misunderstanding between parties and cases of investors being left without
protection.
The ICO Business Research Group proposes the following two principles on the issuance oftokens, while paying attention to the viewpoint related to the innovativeness and flexibility of
ICO as well as the viewpoint of investor protection:[Issuance principle 1]

Issuers should define and disclose conditions for theprovision of conveniences such as services and rules on4the distribution of procured funds, profits, as well asresidual assets, to investors of tokens, shareholders, anddebt holders.
Note:

The above is based on the idea that, although ICO can be designed by issuersat their discretion, potential influences (related to rights and obligations) on token
investors, shareholders, and debt holders need to be clearly demonstrated prior
to the issuance.

[Issuance principle 2]

Issuers should define and disclose a means for tracking
the progress of white papers.

Note:

The above is based on the idea that issuers need to explicitly define in advancea means to allow token investors to confirm the progress of the plans stated in
the white paper. It is considered that the information to be disclosed should notnecessarily be financial statements depending on the purpose of issuing tokens
or physical strength of the company. In addition, white papers need to be
manage in a highly transparent manner: for example, procedures for revisingwhite papers are defined, a revision history is available for viewing, and so on.

In addition, as consequences of the above principles, we propose the guidelines below on
requirements related to practical operations.
[Guideline 1] ICOs should be designed to be acceptable to existing shareholders
and debt holders
Note:

ICO should not become a tool that brings advantage nor disadvantage to specificstakeholders.

[Guideline 2] ICOs should not become a loophole in existing financing methods
as equity financeNote:

To enable ICO to gain wide support in the society, a situation where it is abused
as a tool for evasion of laws should be avoided

We propose the five principles below to ensure the protection of investors regarding thepurchase and sales of tokens.
[Trading principle 1]

Token sellers should confirm the identity (Know Your
Customer: KYC) and suitability of customers.

5[Trading principle 2]

Administrative companies that support the issuance oftokens should confirm the KYCs of issuers.

[Trading principle 3]

Cryptocurrency exchanges should define and adopt anindustry-wide minimum standard on token listing.

[Trading principle 4]

After tokens are listed, unfair trade practices of such tokens
such as insider trading should be restricted.

[Trading principle 5]Parties related to the trading of tokens such as issuers,
administrative companies, and token exchanges shouldmake efforts to ensure cyber security.

VI. For the future
The ICO Business Research Group proposes the above principles as the minimum principles
that should be satisfied at this time. To enable ICO to be used safely by a wide range ofissuers and investors and to be accepted well in the society, more detailed rules may berequired. For example, we have proposed that issuers be allowed to design rights andobligations related to ICO at their discretion. However, as more deals launched in the future,some rules may be required to restrict or encourage certain types of deals. In addition, when
tokens are issued, rules would contribute to facilitate reaching an agreement that issuers canrefer to regarding procedures for obtaining agreements from existing shareholders and debt
holders . As for the confirmation of KYC, if no concrete check items or means are specified,
it may be difficult to confirm KYCs properly. In addition to all these, it would be indispensable
to set fair accounting/taxation standards to reduce uncertainties regarding accounting andtax operations.
Although there are a wide variety of issues to be considered and it would not be easy to findsolutions for all of them, we hope the above proposals would contribute to future discussions
by each related party.

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