基于区块链技术ICO行为之刑法规制

Rethinking Criminal Law Regulation System for ICO Behaviors Based on Blockchain Technology

比特币、以太坊等流通性和可兑换性较强的高级虚拟货币,本质属性是数字货币。基于区块链技术ICO行为是指首次发行代币,向众多不特定网民募集比特币、以太坊等数字货币的行为。数字货币不是刑法上的货币,以数字货币为募集对象或发行新的数字货币作为回报的ICO行为,不构成刑法上的货币犯罪。数字货币不是非法集资行为的犯罪对象,因此ICO行为不构成非法集资类犯罪。ICO行为可界定为以数字货币为对象的"准众筹",不是证券行为,亦不能上升为证券类犯罪行为。实然层面上,"拉人头"和"收取入门费"式ICO骗取财物行为可构成组织、领导传销罪,在区分投资者错误认识类型和程度基础上判断ICO行为也可以构成诈骗罪。应然层面上,可以通过司法解释方式将ICO行为纳入非法经营罪兜底条款中予以规制。

The advanced virtual currencies with strong liquidity and convertibility, including BTC and Ethereum are essentially digital currencies. The ICO behaviors based on blockchain technology refer to behaviors of initial offering of coins, and raising BTC, Ethereum, and other digital currencies from a large number of non-specific netizens. Digital currencies are not currencies in criminal law, and it is impossible for ICO behavior that takes digital currency as the object of collection or issuing new digital currency as the return to be constituted currency crimes in criminal law. Digital currencies are not criminal objects of illegal fund raising behaviors, so ICO behaviors does not constitute illegal fund raising crimes. ICO behaviors can be defined as'quasi-crowdfunding'with digital money as objects and are not securities behaviors, so ICO behaviors can not be escalated to securities criminal behaviors. In actuality, however, ICO property cheating behaviors of'expanding the pool of suckers'and'collecting initial fees'can constitute the crimes of organizing and leading pyramid selling, and the ICO behaviors based on false cognition and degree judgment of investors can also constitute fraud crimes. On the ideal level, ICO behaviors can be incorporated into the miscellaneous provisions of crime of illegal business operations by judicial interpretation for regulations.