Send this article to the SEC and CFTC because they are fighting over which coins are securities and whether they should be controlling it or they should be forming other organization for the same.
Not only the SEC and CFTC. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets directive (MiCa) was approved last week by the European Council (a last vote instance has still to follow). I took a look into it - and they seem to have read this thread
which is impossible, as the version should be older than the thread, but the coincidence is cool The
last version, which is the one which was approved, contains the following phrase:
Title II shall not apply to the offers to the public where:
(a) the crypto-assets are offered for free;
(b) the crypto-assets are automatically created as a reward for the maintenance of the DLT
or the validation of transactions;
(c) [deleted]
(ca) the offer concerns a utility token of a good or service which exist or is in operation;
(cb) the holder of the crypto-assets has only the right to use them in exchange for goods and
services in a limited network of merchants with contractual arrangements with the
offeror.
In short: Almost all premined coins will be treated differently in the European Union from 2025 on and face sharp regulation, including a mandatory whitepaper which must be submitted to the authorities, and obligations for their marketing communication.
Non-premined coins (it doesn't matter if obtained by mining or staking or "farming" or whatever) are not affected, see the highlighted phrase.
The only premined coins which are excepted from these regulations are those distributed in a completely free way (that means, the projects cannot even airdrop them in exchange for personal data) and utility tokens (either from a single business or a group of businesses) which can be exchanged for products which already exist (i.e. no false promises are permitted).
