Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs are no longer legal in South Korea. 。

The country's regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), issued the ban following a meeting Friday, reasoning that ICOs are pushing the market into a "non-productive speculative direction." 。

The regulator has also banned margin trading on cryptocurrencies.。

SEE ALSO:China bans ICOs for being full of fraud and pyramid schemes 。

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The ICO or a token crowdsale is a way of raising funds by selling digital tokens, typically based on the Ethereum platform. These tokens are different than company stock in the sense they rarely give its owners direct ownership of the company behind the ICO. They may have other value; usually the tokens provide a means to actively participate in the startup's project, and they can typically be sold for other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.。

But several regulatory bodies, including those in the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Russia, have recently warned that lack of regulations has turned ICOs into a playground for scammers.。