It varies from country to country, I should say. Some might consider it as legal tender while other country might accept it as a currency, security, a different asset class or an investment--it really depends. This is what makes bitcoin great and bad at the same time, its flexibility makes it a nice asset to hold while on the other hand it confuses the average people on what really their bitcoins are, though I think that as long as it has value, it can exist as anything the government wants it to be, so in the end it's still fine.
New projects will have new opportunities for the community. In particular they have the features that users expect. Hopefully it will be useful for society. Ico projects can also be used as securities. If they want and it does not affect much to investors.
