(Yicai Global) Aug. 30 -- The China Securities Regulatory Commission has recently solicited blockchain companies' opinions on ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), is collecting them and discussing the topic, a head of a blockchain technology firm told Yicai Global.

The CSRC will pay special attention to pyramid schemes and fraudulent projects that use ICOs and will probably issue relevant policies this year, she said.

ICOs, which are similar to initial public offerings, but distribute cryptocurrency rather than stocks, have gained traction in China this year as they can raise tens of millions of dollars in days or minutes. Many ICO projects' valuation quickly increased by a factor of 100 to 300. The growth potential of Chinese ICOs is on par with overseas ones.

Public chains, such as Ethereum, are known as sources of technological innovation as they are open, free to join and collaborative. While some quality blockchain startups that may be unable to acquire funds from venture capitalists or IPOs rely on ICOs, many bum operations use them to attract speculators.

Since tokens doled out in ICOs are like securities, regulators do not face an impossible task in forming supervisory policies for them, a legal expert told Yicai Global. Restrictions on exchanges are the ones most likely to be effective as digital assets are not country-specific, the expert said.