That list at the bottom is not exhaustive! It's just a few enforcement actions that the SEC wants you to read. They also do worse things.
For instance, the SEC threatened to prosecute the DAO [1], which was certainly not a "clear unethical practice", or "flagrant violation" of securities law -- just a bunch of people voluntarily putting their money into a pool to vote on what to do with it. They could even withdraw their money at any time.
"The Commission has determined not to pursue an
enforcement action in this matter based on the conduct and activities known to the Commission
at this time"
I mean... it sounds to me like they did their due diligence. The PDF contains an in-depth look at how existing securities law intersects with what this group was doing. That's exactly what the SEC is supposed to do.
DAOs are new and unfamiliar. They looked at what was going on and decided not to pursue further action. That seems quite reasonable to me.
> The Commission has determined not to pursue an enforcement action in this matter based on the conduct and activities known to the Commission at this time
What they mean is:
> We chose not to beat a dead horse, because it's already dead.
I don't see why that matters. They clarified that DAO tokens are securities but decided not to pursue any action for a number of reasons, one of which being (and they've stated this elsewhere) that prior to their clarification there was ambiguity on this issue.
The tl;dr is that they are clearly securities under existing law. Now that the SEC has clarified that fact companies are free to issue Tokens if they comply with the law.
> When the SEC says...what they mean is: we chose not to beat a dead horse, because it's already dead
The SEC charged Bernie Madoff's auditors after the scheme had been revealed [1]. In respect of the DAO, the SEC appears to be taking a "wait and see" approach. (With ICOs, on the other hand, we've seen enough.)
Every day that goes by is a day when they could’ve taken action but didn’t. The stuff they publish on the topic all seems reasonably well thought out, and is always consistent with a “we just want you to follow the rules in place even if you’re using novel tech to do things” mentality.
Sure, they can pivot into rabid dog mode at any moment, but they’re allowing things to proceed while being aware that it’s gaining more mainstream appeal.
The sort of posture you’re advocating is the same sort of scaremongering as the “this is all a Ponzi scheme that will blow up any day now” types are spewing.
For instance, the SEC threatened to prosecute the DAO [1], which was certainly not a "clear unethical practice", or "flagrant violation" of securities law -- just a bunch of people voluntarily putting their money into a pool to vote on what to do with it. They could even withdraw their money at any time.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/litigation/investreport/34-81207.pdf