University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln College of Law, Faculty Publications Law, College of 2012 Crowdfunding and the Federal Securities Laws C. Steven Bradford University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub Part of the Legal Studies Commons Bradford, C. Steven, "Crowdfunding and the Federal Securities Laws" (2012). College of Law, Faculty Publications. 119. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub/119 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law, College of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Law, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Columbia Business Law Review (2012), pp. 1-150 CROWDFUNDING AND THE FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS C. Steven Bradford* Crowdfunding-the use of the Internet to raise money through small contributions from a large number of investors-could cause a revolution in small-business financing. Through crowdfunding, smaller entrepreneurs, who traditionallyhave had great difficulty obtaining capital, have access to anyone in the world with a computer, Internet access, and spare cash to invest. Crowdfunding sites such as Kiva, Kickstarter, and IndieGoGo have proliferated, and the amount of money raised through crowdfunding has grown to billions of dollars in just a few years. Crowdfunding poses two issues under federal securities law. First, crowdfunding sometimes involves the sale of securities, triggering the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. Registrationis prohibitively expensive for the small offerings that crowdfunding facilitates, and none of the current exemptions from registration fit the crowdfunding model.