“Can a digital asset that was originally offered in a securities offering ever be later sold in a manner that does not constitute an offering of a security?”
Such was the question posed by William Hinman, Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance, in his speech at the Yahoo Finance All
Initial coin offerings so far have gone through two major phases in their brief lifespan. The initial phase flew under the regulatory radar in an explosion of deals that raised billions of dollars seemingly overnight and without either registering the offerings with the SEC or complying with an exemption from registration. The ICO atmosphere changed
The Wall Street Journal ominously reported on February 28 that the Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued dozens of subpoenas to initial coin offering issuers and their advisors demanding information about the structure of their ICOs. Although the Commission has yet to 
officially acknowledge them, the subpoenas are consistent with a series of SEC enforcement
Last month, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin made good on his promise to conduct an exam sweep of ICOs in Massachusetts. On January 17, the Enforcement Section of the Massachusetts Securities Division brought its first ICO related enforcement action, an administrative complaint against a company called Caviar and its founder Kirill Bensonoff
December 11, 2017 was a day of reckoning for entrepreneurs conducting or contemplating initial coin offerings, and for securities professionals who advise them. First, a company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service abandoned its initial coin offering after being “contacted” by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and
Bloomberg reported on October 16 that over $3 billion dollars have been raised in over 200 initial coin offerings so far this year. It remains to be seen whether the pace of ICOs will slow down in the face of regulatory headwinds such as the 
outright ICO bans in China and South Korea. Here
On July 25, 2017, the SEC’s Division of Enforcement issued a Report of Investigation 
(the “Report”) that concluded that the tokens issued in an initial coin offering (“ICO”) by a decentralized autonomous organization called “The DAO” were “securities” and that the ICO itself should either have been registered with the SEC under the Securities Act