SEC issues DAO Report, applying securities law to tokens

On July 25, 2017, the SEC released an investigative report concluding that tokens sold by The DAO were securities under the Howey test, effectively putting the entire ICO boom on notice that "it's not a security, it's a utility token" was not, in fact, a legal argument. The agency declined to bring charges this time, choosing instead to caution the industry, and thereby laid the groundwork for years of token enforcement actions.