The U.S. SEC Proposes a Framework to Reopen Public Token Sales for U.S. Investors

Odaily Planet Daily reports: This month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled proposed rules to reopen public token sales to U.S. investors, allowing crypto startups to raise up to $5 million and larger projects up to $75 million annually without completing a full SEC registration process. The new framework would require issuers to make disclosures and may result in higher compliance costs; secondary market trading rules for tokens after issuance remain complex. The proposal also seeks to permit investment contracts attached to tokens to terminate once the issuer completes or permanently ceases its promised management duties to investors, rather than remaining permanently tied to the token. Currently, speculative capital is concentrated primarily in Bitcoin, a few major tokens, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and AI-themed stocks; the number of token financings involving crypto venture capital has declined significantly, with some major VC firms expanding their investment scope into AI, robotics, and other frontier technologies. At its peak in January 2018, ICOs raised approximately $3 billion in a single month. Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly, stated that the proposal is better than no proposal at all, but the more urgent issue is the regulatory matters the CLARITY Act—currently stalled in Congress—was intended to address, rather than fundraising. Carlos Guzman, Research Analyst at GSR, noted that ICOs in 2026 are vastly different from those in 2018; the era of raising funds based solely on whitepapers and visions has ended.