The Securities and Exchange Commission found that the coins in one prominent ICO were in fact securities. The report comes at a time when dozens of companies have completed, or are in the midst of, raising hundreds of millions through the ICO process. The announcement is likely to jolt the red-hot market for so-called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) The proponents of the ICOs typically argue that the tokens they issue are not securities, but are instead a form of credit akin to subway tokens.”]
Source: https://fortune.com/2017/07/25/sec-says-digital-tokens-are-securities-warns-of-fraud/