It's an interesting distinction which begs the question of how securities enforcement will work on currencies which start off looking like securities and "evolve" out of that designation like Bitcoin and Ether did. As implied by the statement, the "fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether" would probably qualify as a securities offering since it absolutely relied on central actors to maintain initial development until it had grown sufficiently to become more of a decentralized platform. At what point are token purchases no longer protected by securities law?

The SEC (or SEC leadership) has shown a willingness to take a fairly nuanced view on how cryptocurrencies are classified. Will be interesting to see how this thinking evolves as nuance comes with complexity.