In the field of cryptocurrency investment, cryptocurrency investment sharing communities have become one of the important channels for investors to obtain information. They often follow group owners (such as KOLs) through social media and join the Web3 investment groups they create to timely acquire the latest cryptocurrency dynamics and investment analysis. However, many of these communities have set high membership fees. Therefore, a new type of cryptocurrency information sharing model, 'paid information transfer groups', has emerged—users can join the group for a very low membership fee to access high-quality cryptocurrency investment information transferred by the group owner.
It appears that there is nothing wrong with the operation of transferring information. However, in reality, there are also many legal compliance issues that group owners need to pay attention to.
What is a paid transfer group?
The owner/operator of cryptocurrency paid information transfer groups (hereinafter referred to as 'cryptocurrency transfer groups') usually claims to have subscribed to multiple high-value paid cryptocurrency communities and can use the robot's 'keyword capture' function to transfer internal information from other paid communities in real-time. 'A one-time membership fee for multiple group information' indeed attracts many people to pay.
The operational models of these cryptocurrency transfer groups usually include the following characteristics:
Multi-source integration: information within the group may come from multiple paid communities, covering various areas such as Web3 market information and investment analysis from players.
Automated transfer: Many community group owners use bots to set keywords to automatically capture and forward information from target communities.
Real-time updates: Because bots are used for automatic capture and forwarding, these groups are generally considered capable of timely transferring cryptocurrency information.
Low-price strategy: Group owners often emphasize that the membership fee is much lower than the membership fee of the source community, for example, 'Spend a few hundred U to experience a paid group strategy worth over 20,000 U.'
Value-added services: In addition to forwarding information, some community group owners also provide simple interpretations or suggestions, attempting to create additional value for users.
Taking a certain ongoing promotional transfer group as an example, the platform claims to have paid to join more than 30 top-quality paid communities, providing group members with multidimensional information including but not limited to contract trading, spot market trends, and short selling strategies through a robot that synchronizes information in real-time 24/7.
What Cryptocurrency Transfer Group Owners Need to Know
These characteristics of cryptocurrency paid information transfer groups can usually attract a large number of Web3 investment users to join for a fee, achieving a win-win for users and group owners. However, Lawyer Mankun believes that during this process, cryptocurrency transfer group owners should also pay attention to some legal compliance issues. For example, an article previously published by Mankun Law Firm (Operating TG Telegram Groups Actually Led to Imprisonment! How Should Web3 Communities Operate Compliantly?) has already analyzed compliance issues regarding charging cryptocurrency membership fees and providing investment advice. At the same time, as cryptocurrency paid transfer group owners, they also need to focus on the following aspects:
(1) Information Transfer Infringement Issues
In the paid information transfer group model, a persistent issue is the infringement of other KOLs' intellectual property rights.
KOLs typically enjoy copyright over the original content they publish in paid communities, such as in-depth market analyses and exclusive project evaluations, and are protected by intellectual property laws. Moreover, based on the community rules and daily statements of KOLs, most paid communities explicitly prohibit members from disseminating information from within the group, which can also be seen as further protection of KOLs' copyright.
In this case, the community group owner copies and disseminates unauthorized original information for profit, which not only violates the service contract with the original community KOL but may also constitute an infringement of intellectual property rights, making them liable to the respective KOL.
Moreover, operating one's own community by transferring paid content from other communities may also likely be viewed as an act of unfair competition through means of infringing on trade secrets, violating laws and business ethics, and harming the legitimate rights and interests of the original creators.
(2) Lack of Information Review Issues
The group owner of the transfer group must also consider the authenticity and accuracy of group messages.
The paid model of transfer groups determines that group owners and members are not simply 'netizens', but have established a service relationship: members pay a membership fee, and the group owner regularly releases cryptocurrency investment information. Therefore, community group owners should ensure the quality of service, avoid publishing false or erroneous information, and mislead group members.
However, most transfer groups use automated tools to capture information, which usually makes it difficult to review this information item by item. This leads to the possibility that if members invest based on this unverified information and suffer losses, the community group owner may face certain legal compliance issues.
Breach of contract issues: If members suffer investment losses due to relying on false or erroneous information, the group owner may be deemed in breach of contract and face the risk of civil compensation liability.
Fraud issues: If the community group owner knowingly continues to disseminate information that may have problems, it could even be considered fraud.
Regulatory penalties: In certain cases, if the spread of false information has a severe impact, it may attract the attention and penalties from regulatory authorities.
(3) Project Promotion Issues
In addition, many transfer groups also accept promotional invitations from Web3 project parties to promote specific projects within the group.
According to Article 148 of the (Civil Code), if the group owner's false statements lead investors to have a misunderstanding and purchase tokens or participate in projects, resulting in property losses, their actions will constitute civil fraud, and investors have the right to seek compensation.
Even more seriously, if the group owner already has the intention to illegally occupy investors' property and deceives the project party to obtain investors' funds, ultimately leading to property losses for investors, their actions are likely to violate Article 266 of the (Criminal Law) regarding fraud, leading to criminal liability.
Lawyer Mankun's Summary
As an emerging information dissemination model, cryptocurrency paid information transfer groups have become an important track for community group owners to develop memberships, but they also bring significant legal compliance matters that cannot be ignored. Therefore, cryptocurrency transfer group owners should recognize the legal boundaries of their actions. Lawyer Mankun suggests the following measures to standardize management:
Obtain authorization: Establish a formal cooperative relationship with original content KOLs or community group owners to obtain clear content reprint authorization.
Clearly label sources: For reprinted or quoted content, be sure to clearly label the original author and source, respecting the intellectual property rights of the original creators.
Strengthen information review: Conduct manual reviews on the information captured by bots to ensure its authenticity and reliability.
Clearly state disclaimers: Clearly state disclaimers in group rules, reminding group members to independently judge the authenticity of the information.
Compliance promotion: When promoting projects, conduct compliance investigations on projects, and avoid exaggerating promotions or promising returns, ensuring the objectivity of promotional content.
The emergence of paid information transfer groups reflects the market's demand for high-quality, low-cost information. However, while enjoying the convenience, community group owners and members within the group should be aware of potential legal compliance issues and work together to maintain a healthy and compliant information exchange environment. If problems arise while creating or operating paid transfer groups in the cryptocurrency space, please contact a lawyer for compliance consultation in a timely manner.