The SEC has charged two initial coin offerings with defrauding investors
Well it was about the damn time! A lot of ICOs are borderline  (or just straight) scams. There have been even cases where the ICO funds have been "stolen" but rumours say the founders just took the money and ran.<p>A lot of the so called "products" and "businesses" pitched by these ICO companies are just well known already working models somehow <i>forced</i> into the blockchain with the only reason being the ability to do an ICO (and generate an absurd amount of money for the founders).<p>Another common feature of ICOs: there's never any equity on the table. The founders are gonna cash in on the ICO and then later do an exit (sell the company, IPO, whatever). ICO "investors" are not gonna get much for their money here.<p>At least during the dotcom bubble some companies made it and the investors then got real equity for their money.