A New Beginning After awaiting a long time period, the Regulation Crowdfunding was finally released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC also set May 16, 2016 as an official date to let websites provide equity crowdfunding service. Since May 2016, several websites that received the approval for operation have entered the U.S. crowdfunding market.
Diversified Crowdfunding Services
A fast look of the U.S. crowdfunding market, you might find out that industry is sort of messy and very confusing. The players in the crowdfunding market include websites which have been offering diversified services. Those existing players include donation-based websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, websites which were approved by state legislation and regulators for intrastate equity crowdfunding, and websites that provide services predicated on Regulation D and/or Regulation A, or even to accredited investors only.
The newest websites which are supposed to offer the Title III, equity-based, or just equity crowdfunding service might have added more confusion to businesses and investors. Among those new websites, many of them have already held it's place in crowdfunding business for quite some time and opened to accredited investors or accepted investment for Regulation D/A, etc.
Bright Future
As time passes, any website that wants to offer the Title III (or equity) crowdfunding would have to get approval from regulators. But, right now, either business owners or investors have to determine which website offers what sort of crowdfunding service before using some of them. Perhaps, which was among the reasons that crowdfunding websites including some with an incredible number of visitors have experienced significant drop in traffic in recent months StartEngine Success Stories. Although no-one knows what'll happen in the U.S. crowdfunding market as time goes on, it is hopeful that industry will play it out by itself. With the Regulation Crowdfunding in place, the U.S. crowdfunding market will grow and expand to a wholesome market.
In certain other countries, crowdfunding was launched without proper regulations in place. Industry was quickly considered be sour for businesses and investors. Although most crowdfunding websites in that country are honest players, the bad trustworthiness of the entire industry pushes most players to either escape industry entirely or conduct crowdfunding business under a cover of other businesses. Among the key questions for the U.S. crowdfunding market is whether "crowd" will support and invest in companies that are seeking funding on websites. At the current time, no you have a solution yet.