Why a Florida Orange Grove in 1946 Is the Key to Understanding Regulation of ICOs

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Every week, hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway take you on a not-so-random walk through hot topics in markets, finance and economics.

By now, everyone's heard of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) where companies issue their own currency-like tokens. They boomed massively in 2017, alongside the whole cryptocurrency craze. But very few people really get what they are, and how they fit into the regulatory landscape. On this week's Odd Lots podcast, we speak with Peter van Valkenburgh, the director of research at Coin Center, who explains why you have to go back to a 1946 case involving a Florida orange grower to understand how regulators see these newfangled financial instruments. 

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To contact the authors of this story: Tracy Alloway in Abu Dhabi at talloway@bloomberg.net, Joe Weisenthal in New York at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net.

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