On July 25, the SEC made a report that offers and sales of digital assets by "virtual" organizations are subject to the requirements of the federal securities laws. Such offers and sales, conducted by organizations using distributed ledger or Blockchain technology, have been referred to, among other things, as "Initial Coin Offerings" or "Token Sales." The Report confirms that issuers of distributed ledger or Blockchain technology-based securities must register offers and sales of such securities unless a valid exemption applies. It also concludes that the DAO tokens were, in fact, securities and, therefore, “subject to federal law.”
It is really interesting how the law is coming to encompass cryptocurrency by defining it as "securities." To be fair there are some coins that function as securities and not as currency.