The ATVP, which has decided for the move "because of the upsurge in raising funds via blockchain technology (ICO) and numerous legal questions this raises", is seeking an opinion whether the current situation should be maintained and a unbinding code of conduct established or a new legal framework should be adopted.

The agency also wants to obtain experts' opinions on the rights entailed in tokens, on the obligations of creating a prospectus, identification of ICO organisers and disclosure of intended use of raised funds as well as potential limitations in an ICO, an initial public offering for a cryptocurrency.

ICOs are specific transactions, among other things because unlike initial public offerings they are not systemically regulated and supervised in many countries including Slovenia, the ATVP said.

"Consequently, investors in these schemes have no guarantees like in the case of initial public offerings of securities in regulated financial markets."

In addition, this means ICOs can be used for fraudulent or unlawful activities, including money laundering.

According to the ATVP, there is also the risk of incomplete, unbalanced or even misleading information in prospectuses, and a high risk of loss of invested funds, because ICOs are in general meant to finance project in early stages without guarantee that they will be completed.

The future value of a token depends solely on its use and is not necessarily linked with the financial stability of the issuer. Additionally, it is likely that a secondary market will not develop for a certain token, which means that they cannot be traded for traditional currencies.

ICOs are becoming increasingly popular, with the securities market regulator assessing that more than EUR 3.7bn have been raised via ICOs globally.

In the latest ICO in Slovenia, carried out by startup InsurePal on Tuesday, as much as US$5.4m was raised in 80 seconds.