The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that its attention has been drawn to the activities of certain cryptocurrency promoters advertising a digital token known as Shalom Coin (SHLM) as an investment opportunity purportedly issued on the Ethereum Blockchain as an ERC-20 token.
The Commission also reminded investors and the general public to verify the authenticity of any digital asset, its promoters, and trading platforms through the Commission’s official website – www.sec.gov.ng/cmos – before engaging in any form of digital asset investment.
According to SEC, “preliminary findings by the Commission indicate that Shalom Coin (SHLM) is being promoted across online channels and social media platforms as a “meme coin” or community token, often accompanied by speculative claims of potential investment returns”.
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“The public is hereby informed that the promoters and/or issuers of Shalom Coin (SHLM) are not registered to operate in any capacity in the Nigerian Capital Market. Consequently, Shalom Coin (SHLM) is not approved by the Commission for issuance, trading, or offering to the investing public in Nigeria,” SEC noted in a recent circular.
“Additional findings suggest also that the token’s smart contract includes features which enable the issuer or creator to modify critical parameters such as trading permissions, transaction fees, and total token supply making the risk of a potentially fraudulent crypto-asset schemes very high,” SEC said.
“Members of the investing public are therefore strongly advised to exercise utmost caution in dealing with Shalom Coin (SHLM) or any similar unregistered digital asset, as any person who invests in such products does so entirely at his or her own risk,” SEC noted.
