Karen Tyler, who is the Securities Commissioner for the U.S. state of North Dakota, just filed a "cease and desist" order against 3 initial coin offerings (ICOs), alleging that the offerings are in fact an unregistered and fraudulent form of securities. Tyler took action against Crystal Token, Advertiza Holdings (Pty) Ltd. and Life Cross Coin, which also does business as LifecrosscoinGmbH. Crystal Token is an ERC-20 coin that functions within the Ethereum ecosystem, which has been promising investors a return of 2% every day. It is this "unsubstantiated" promise — along with the fact that the company is not authorized to offer securities in the state of North Dakota — that drew the ire of Tyler. Advertiza Holdings sells a digital currency called Tizacoin or TIZA, and like the Crystal Token, it has made claims that investors will see an appreciation in their investment in the token. Tyler cited this claim as to why the coin should be considered a security. Advertiza has also claimed that it is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when there is no evidence of this. Nor are they registered with the North Dakota Securities Department. Life Cross Coin has run afoul with Tyler for a number of reasons. First, the company's website operates on an IP address that has been associated with a German malware company. The company further claims that proceeds from the ICO will go to charity and that investors will receive a large return on investment from ICO. Not only are both claims unsubstantiated according to Tyler, but the company is also not registered to operate in North Dakota. Tyler issued a statement in coordination with the orders. She said that financial criminals are exploiting cryptocurrencies for nefarious purposes and that this is a threat to ordinary investors. She added that these criminals are taking advantage of the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, ICOs and blockchain technology, and that investors should be cautious when investing in such offerings. The cease and desist orders are part of Operation Cryptosweep, which is an investigation by local U.S. and Canadian regulators into cryptocurrency fraud.