These are just words and no meat actually. That SEC statement on ICO was more of an advisory rather than an announcement of law enforcement. SEC came up with that stand because of many concerns expressed by the many on ICO. Now, if I am a US citizen and I happen to have bought an ICO maybe all I have to do is never tell anyone about it...just pretend that the transaction never took place in the first place. I don't think that SEC is like a god that can see, hear and touch everything everybody all the time.
This was less of an advisory for token buyers, but rather a warning for token issuers. I doubt that the SEC ever considered going after individual citizens that participated in token sales. However they could go after token issuers, so restricting token sales to non-US citizens is an important move to prevent a crackdown on ICOs. Despite the decentralized nature of ICO tokens, the SEC can still go after the project team, which could harm the project's operational status and thus the value of its issued token.
Agreed. it is no different than the SEC going after an issuer of unregistered securities in violation of the 1934 Act. The investors lose out but should not face any civil or criminal liability whereas the actors/issuers would.
I am a licensed attorney practicing securities arbitration. The foregoing is not intended to be legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is implied.