In order to sell securities to the public in the USA, including some crypto assets, you either need to register your securities with the sec and issue a prospectus or you can only sell to accredited investors.
I have not looked at overstock or kodak but Id venture to say that since they are large companies they spent the $500k or so to register their securities
And what would be the process and requirements to the company and tokens?
Most of the ICOs try to classify themselves as utility tokens and seek exemption from SEC registration requirements. But SEC recently banned an ICO from Munchees, even though Munchees treated their token (MUN) as utility and not as security.
If your token is really a token (and not disguised as token instead of securities), you are exempt from SEC requirements.
What's the difference between tokens and securities?
It blows my mind that it costs $500K to file Reg D and Reg S. How is that possible? Is that attorney's fees? Or is that the ACTUAL costs of filing - like, collected by the SEC. I can't believe it's the latter. But I've seen that cost bandied about quite a lot, and someone I know who has a lot of experience mentioned it on a call the other day ... yet there was no time on the call for me to ask him. Anyway ... it really seems prohibitively expensive, although given the amounts raised, I suppose in the long term, it's reasonable, relatively speaking.
A large ICO can easily cost up to $500k to meet filing requirements, these include attorney fees, overhead, filing fees, personnel, marketing to investors, investor relations, KYC/AML software, in some cases reg with FINRA or other dependent agencies. The process is not something any small startups can undergo....the JOBS ACT was created to address this to allow startups to raise money more quickly. SEC filing fee is about $124.50 per $1,000,000 raised. Disclaimer I am not an expert but I had done some research on the viability of registering with the SEC.
Another thing to note is that most investors are not dumb. Tokens with no collateral, be it stock, options or dividend will not appeal to them, hence there usually is some structure to entice investors to invest -- it revolves around one word - PROFIT
I haven't seen any of the tokens distributed through SAFT mechanism on crypto exchanges, I might be wrong but I do know there is a requirement requiring investors to hold for at least 1-year, that could be the reason why. I dont think Kodak and Overstock have completed their ICO yet, Kodak just had a material release that their ICO is slightly delayed due to the due diligence process required to bring investors on board.