The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been relatively stringent in its views of both security and utility tokens. The organization is seeking to label all virtual tokens originally distributed through initial coin offerings (ICOs) as securities, which would subject them to very strict regulatory practices and potentially have massive repercussions on their prices.

One of those tokens is ether, which was originally distributed and marketed through presales. Members of the Venture Capital Working Group — an organization comprised of lawyers, investors and cryptocurrency experts working to block the SEC’s decision — argue that ether has become so decentralized, it can no longer be looked at as a security, and should thus be exempt from securities-related laws. Ether is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after bitcoin.  Read more...