Financial law could assist in the regulation of ICOs, depending on how they are structured:

- Currency tokens
- Equity tokens
- Intermediaries
- Individual portfolio management
- Collective investment

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Given the variety of ICOs, a one-size-fits-all legal analysis of ICOs is impossible. Any legal assessment must consider the particularities of individual offerings, and apply them in the context of financial law and regulation, including:

- Legally relevant conduct
- General consumer protection legislation
- Financial law and regulation
- Crowdfunding legislation

Appropriateness of existing legal frameworks for ICOs

Zetzsche, Dirk Andreas and Buckley, Ross P. and Arner, Douglas W. and Arner, Douglas W. and Föhr, Linus, The ICO Gold Rush: It's a Scam, It's a Bubble, It's a Super Challenge for Regulators (July 24, 2018). University of Luxembourg Law Working Paper No. 11/2017, UNSW Law Research Paper No. 17-83, University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2017/035, European Banking Institute Working Paper Series 18/2018, Harvard International Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3072298 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3072298

The ICO Gold Rush

- Consumer protection legislation by country for ICOs
- Private international law for ICOs
- Specific legislation exceptions for ICOs

General consumer protection legislation for ICOs

While some ICOs accept donations, most ICOs promise some form of benefit in return for consideration. Depending on how the promise is expressed, a legally relevant contract or partnership (or possibly even a trust) may arise.

Legally relevant conduct for ICOs

There are two primary forms of crowdfunding legislation. The first type modifies existing financial laws for small issuers and brokers of those issuers with a view to lightening the regulatory burden. Under the second type, regulators provide thresholds for exemptions from prospectus and other financial law requirements.

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