Creative Investment Issues Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Report

WASHINGTON - July 28, 2017 - PRLog -- Creative Investment Research released The CIR ICO Report today. Our report can be obtained by sending an email to info@creativeinvest.com. (There is a charge for the report).

Our report preceded, but now incorporates, the Securities and Exchange Commission "investigative" report on ICOs. We review several important aspects of this new marketplace:

What is an ICO?

An ICO, or "initial coin offering" is an innovative fundraising mechanism that has received a great deal of attention of late. This method of business financing may eventually dominate all other forms. For now, the ICO concept has taken the tech start-up financing and blockchain industries by storm.

What is a Token?

A token is a unit of cryptocurrency. Tokens released by ICO issuing firms can be either built from scratch on an entirely new Blockchain code or function as a "meta-token," created using existing cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum. Tokens are electronically created and maintained, so there are few exchange limitations.

Why ICO?

Although ICO's have been around since 2013 (when a company called Mastercoin raised over $600,000 in Bitcoin) the token sale market has really taken off in the last 12 months.

As the SEC noted, "offers and sales, conducted by organizations using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, have been referred to, among other things, as Initial Coin Offerings or Token Sales."

Issuing, Buying and Selling ICOs

Our report outlines current facilities and resources.

For more information on blockchain technology, see the appendix to the report and the following:

• Introductory article on cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain technology. http://twisri.blogspot.com/2017/05/summary-of-bitcoin-and...

• Blockchain 1.0. http://twisri.blogspot.com/2017/05/blockchain-10.html

Our background and qualifications

The firm has long been active in the marketplace of new investing ideas. We have also long been concerned with the SEC's ability to reflect the public interest:

- On July 9, 1993, Mr. Cunningham wrote SEC Commissioner Mary Schapiro to suggest the SEC warn the investing public about a certain specific investing "scam." A timely warning was not, to our knowledge, ever issued.

- On December 22, 2003 and February 6, 2006, we warned the SEC of growing system-wide economic and market failure risk.

- Mr. Cunningham testified on behalf of the public at a hearing regarding the $1.4 billion dollar Global Research Analyst Settlement. Other testimony includes the following:

-- Testified on the NMTC Program before the House Ways and Means Committee. June 18, 2009.

-- Testified before the House Financial Services Committee. Warned of future problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. June 15, 2000.

- Filed Amicus briefs in the Fiduciary Rule Case (16-cv-1035), Met Life v FSOC (16-5086), Galvin v SEC (15-1150), US vs. S&P (US District Court, Central District CA) and others.

William Michael Cunningham is an expert on Impact Investing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental, Social and Governance Investing, and Socially Responsible Investing. He creates new investing vehicles, tools and products and is the author of several books, including "The JOBS Act: Crowdfunding Guide to Small Businesses and Startups 2nd Edition" published by Apress, a division of Springer Books.

Mr. Cunningham partnered with the City of Minneapolis on a $200 million dollar New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Application.

He created a new, nationally recognized bank analysis system that uses both financial and social data. This system became the "Investment Test" now used to evaluate banks under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Evaluate women and minority-owned banks and brokerage firms.

Cunningham has given Impact Investing, SRI, ESG and CSR presentations at industry conferences in Finland, Switzerland, England, Germany and the United States.

Mr. Cunningham was an early adopter of the Internet, and serves as a community member of NARALO for ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Mr. Cunningham launched his company website, www.creativeinvest.com, on November 16, 1995.

He is cited regularly in several publications including Black Enterprise Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. His community economic development commentaries have been published in the Washington Post and in the American Banker Newspaper.

He holds a Masters in Economics and an MBA in Finance, both from the University of Chicago.