The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has pegged the maximum amount to be raised from Digital Assets Offering within a 12-month interval at N10billion.
This is contained in SEC’s latest circular, entitled: New Guidelines on Issuance, Providing Platforms and Custody of Digital Property, which prescribes applicable fee to all issuers looking to boost capital through digital assets.
SEC said: “An issuer may only raise funds subject to the following limit: twenty times the Issuer’s shareholders’ funds i.e., the maximum quantum of funds permitted to be raised within any continuous 12-month period, subject to a ceiling of N10 billion or any other ceiling as the Commission may determine from time to time.”
It defined digital asset as a digital token that represents assets such as a debt or equity claim on the issuer, including Initial Coin offering and other distributed ledger technology offers.
The issuer shall display that the gross proceeds to be raised from the digital asset providing can be enough to undertake the venture as proposed within the white paper.
The new rules also said: “The issuer shall display that the gross proceeds to be raised from the digital asset providing can be enough to undertake the venture as proposed within the white paper.
“Within the occasion that the quantity raised is under the soft-cap, the Issuer shall refund all monies collected from the token holders inside 5 enterprise days from the provide cut-off date.”
On the funding restriction, the Commission allows an individual to spend money on a preliminary digital asset providing topic to the assorted limits, but did not impose such a restriction for certified institutional and excessive internet value buyers.
However for retail buyers, they are allowed to spend at most N200,000 per issuer with a total funding not exceeding N2 million within a 12-month period.
It said: “An individual might spend money on a preliminary digital asset providing topic to the next limits:
“For certified institutional and excessive internet value buyers, no restriction on funding quantity; and for retail buyers, a most of N200,000 per issuer with a complete funding restrict not exceeding N2 million inside a 12-month interval.”
