> Can anyone provide an example where an ICO would not be a security
Well, if it's purely a "utility coin", and people are buying it in order to exchange the coin for some service (like, basically, car wash tokens but on the internet), and there's not really any speculation in the secondary market, and people are buying them for their own use and not to resell or speculate on, it's probably fine. On the other hand, if the product that the coins would be used for hasn't been built yet, it's probably not fine (since you're gambling on the founders executing properly, yet have no real control over whether they do so).
...but no, I don't know of any examples that fit that criteria.
ICOs don't make a lot of sense for things that aren't securities; the most common purpose (at least for the legit, non-fraudulent ones) is to obtain investment to build a product. That's obviously a security, and one of the core purposes of securities law is to protect people being asked to contribute an investment that will be used to build a product.
> Can anyone provide an example where an ICO would not be a security
Well, if it's purely a "utility coin", and people are buying it in order to exchange the coin for some service (like, basically, car wash tokens but on the internet), and there's not really any speculation in the secondary market, and people are buying them for their own use and not to resell or speculate on, it's probably fine. On the other hand, if the product that the coins would be used for hasn't been built yet, it's probably not fine (since you're gambling on the founders executing properly, yet have no real control over whether they do so).
...but no, I don't know of any examples that fit that criteria. ICOs don't make a lot of sense for things that aren't securities; the most common purpose (at least for the legit, non-fraudulent ones) is to obtain investment to build a product. That's obviously a security, and one of the core purposes of securities law is to protect people being asked to contribute an investment that will be used to build a product.