Ask HN: Current legality of running an ICO for a startup?

This discussion may very well have already occurred, but I'm curious as to how legal it is to fund a startup via an ICO (i.e., create a fancy lander with a lofty stated mission, draft out a whitepaper with a few nice graphics inserted to demonstrate to the public how your loft mission will be built out) these days? I know the SEC has implemented new rules but I don't know how they apply to a startup taking money from the public in the form of a currency which cannot be used to purchase anything.

I began pondering if this is the "new" method of fundraising for today's "leading-edge" tech entrepreneurs. I see many sites like https://sparkster.me/ advertising a sale of tokens and it makes me wonder if I've missed an opportunity to fund the growth of a startup (potentially to a large scale) without outside interest.