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I was talking with a friend about where all the money for ICOS was coming from. Well anyone in the world can invest in your startup with no national or legal restrictions. No accredited investor checking, no IRS backup withholding for foreign nationals, no international wire transfer fees, no currency controls, no anti-money laundering procedures, etc. People like this Kenyan guy who has never had a bank account is who is investing in ICOs.

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Except that paying into ICO is not investing, more like donating, with very little legal action if anything goes not as expected (e.g. the ICO "founder" parting with all of the money).

That donation becomes "speculation" if the token received from donating (i.e paying a price for a token) becomes tradable to other people.

Of course it is a questionable medium to speculating in, since there is no real mechanism holding the ICO-offerer to any obligation to deliver what they say they will deliver.

At least with a traditional stock market that is slightly more regulated, transparent, etc, we can reasonably expect that everyone from Apple to Zapos will attempt to deliver on what they say they will, with theoretical criminal charges being the price to pay for those who deliberately defraud investors.

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