SEC Chairman Atkins: Most types of ICOs are not securities and will not be under the SEC's regulatory purview.

At the Blockchain Association's annual policy summit, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that many types of ICOs should be considered "non-securities transactions" and therefore not subject to SEC regulation. He emphasized that network tokens, digital collectibles, and digital instrument tokens do not constitute securities, and ICOs related to these categories should also not fall under SEC jurisdiction. In his token classification framework proposed last month, Atkins divided crypto tokens into four categories, with only "security tokens" falling under SEC regulation, while the other three categories should be handled by the more lenient CFTC. He stated, "Three categories fall under the CFTC's domain, and we will focus on security tokens." This statement may indicate a potential return of ICO fundraising in the US, even without new market structure legislation. After the ICO boom in 2017, the SEC conducted large-scale enforcement actions on the grounds of "unregistered securities offerings," leading to a significant contraction of this model. With Coinbase launching an ICO platform for US retail investors through its acquisition of Echo last month, the industry seems to have accelerated its development (Decrypt) before regulatory clarification.