SEC to keep an eye on the Darknet

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, is known for its attention to the cryptocurrency market and its sincere commitment to combat fraudsters, and yesterday, they expanded their activities into the dark web cyberspace.

The dark web, due to the anonymization tools much more efficient than on the regular websites and web clients, became a haven for various criminal groups and merchants, with big platforms openly trafficking drugs and weapons. Cryptocurrency is often used by the dark web individuals and organizations to hide traces – this is where Monero anonymization tools come in handy and combined with TOR solutions, help to remain in the shadows.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to shed a light on this market and establish a new unit within its ranks that will primarily focus on cryptocurrency darknet activities and “misconduct perpetrated using the dark web”, as well as “misconduct impacting retail investors”, learning from past fraud cases. Robert A. Cohen, who previously worked in the counter-abuse team of the SEC and thus has a good experience, will lead this new unit.

Meanwhile, the FICO, a rating company, is trying to invent a mechanism that will help to evaluate initial coin offerings risks and compose a list of most trustful ICOs. A similar solution with the built-in ICO risk evaluation was lately proposed by Russian officials.