It is in my opinion that China is very short sighted in their ban on ICOs. I am only an observer of the whole ICO market as I hold Bitcoin only. But I do believe in ICOs as the future of a democratized way of getting financial support for the unbanked.
Who said that entrepreneurs with good ideas should not be given every opportunity by the community themselves? But of course we should still be careful and be responsible with our own actions. People will lose money from scams.
Do you think a country like Switzerland or Singapore welcome ICOs and become new havens for them?
I don't think most countries will follow China with an outright ban on ICOs. In a regulated environment, there is a lot of potential economic growth and taxable revenue to come of ICOs. I think the SEC is hinting at regulating, rather than banning them. I think their recent ruling was meant as a warning to ICO operators: if you're a security, get registered or take moves to prohibit US residents from participating.
Canada is one example. They seem to be offering a much more welcoming approach:
While China is Getting Tough With ICOs, Canada Voices Support For Token SaleFinancial regulators in Canada are giving the digital currencies and initial coin offering (ICO) activities a big break. Among the regulators is Quebecs Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), which intends to give the Blockchain use case a chance, if not altogether encourage it.
To show its support to ICOs, the AMF has determined that the token sale conducted by socially responsible enterprises investment startup Impak Finance is a security. The regulator also accepted the company into its regulatory sandbox.
The AMF has also relieved Impak Finance some of the requirements that it usually required from securities for protection purposes so that the ICO will materialize.
According to AMF corporate finance division director Patrick Theoret, the move is a test case to determine whether there will be investor protection issues that will emerge from the ICO:
"Its in the spirit of the sandbox that we are willing to alleviate some of the requirements on, sort of, a test case basis. It's a test run to see whether there are investor protection [issues] with the relief that we grant."
https://cointelegraph.com/news/while-china-is-getting-tough-with-icos-canada-voices-support-for-token-sale