One Month On, Forsage Continues Despite SEC's Ponzi Warnings

Published on by Cointele | Published on

A full month after the Philippines' Securities and Exchange Commission flagged Forsage as a likely Ponzi, it remains the second-most popular Ethereum DApp on internet rankings.

As of Aug. 6, Forsage has 390,000 users and a turnover of $3.11 million per 24 hours - despite being marked in dappstat.com rankings as "High risk."

"I received numerous inquiries from friends and family about Forsage and 'investing' in Ethereum just within the last month or so. People are posting screenshots of their wallets turning a small amount of money into a large amount of money in a short time."

In one recruitment post that remains online as of the time of publication, the author capitalizes on the pandemic crisis to pitch Forsage as a "Work from home" smart contract crypto earnings program, which offers investors the chance to "Earn a long term residual income" just by recruiting three others.

Victims or otherwise, the Philippines' SEC told Cointelegraph that any of Forsage's "Members and/or representatives that are still actively offering, endorsing, selling and recruiting others to join said illegal scheme despite our prevailing Advisory will be dealt with accordingly."

"Forsage's scheme partakes of the nature of securities through an investment contract which is absolutely within the purview of the SRC. That being the case, being decentralized or foreign in nature, as claimed by FORSAGE and its members, does not necessarily imply that its activities are not within the Commission's jurisdiction considering that it is engaged in investment-taking operations within our country."

Any person or entity using Forsage as an "Income-generating tool" within the country is therefore within the SEC's authority and is subject to taxation as well as other applicable laws, notably the Philippines' 2017 central bank circular containing guidelines for Virtual Currency Exchanges.

Forsage, which "Appears to offer perpetual or unlimited securities through its smart contract or program, is certainly not exempted" under the central bank's circular, Leonardo said.

While appearing to offer securities brings Forsage under registration obligations, as a minimum, the Commission went further in its characterization of the program.

"Based on the foregoing, we wish to make it clear that Forsage is just a 'decentralized' financial fraud which depends solely on new investments lured to its referral system for its continuous operation," Leonardo wrote.

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