The SEC is a US entity, so the impact will be US centric. That said, if US courts define and/or uphold laws, that is often used as a standard for other countries. For example, Australia usually follows US trends 1-2 years later. In the case of ICOs, if other countries see a problem where investors are being ripped off, then they will act and will point to US courts for what they have done and interpret & enact similar laws. No government will sit by quietly while 90% of all ICOs are fraudulent. They will look for the fastest method to enact law and that typically means just doing what the US do.

As typically happens, there is legislative overreach. Laws will be too broad and it will take years to pull them back because contesting them takes a lot of time & money. If their policy is to treat BTC and ETH as currencies, yet everything else is considered subject to the "Howey test" - a test based on Supreme court ruling. The SEC's position is: "The question is whether the 'elements of a profit-seeking business venture' are sufficiently alleged in the indictment, such that, if proven at trial, a reasonable jury could conclude that 'investors provide[d] the capital and share[d] in the earnings and profits; [and] the promoters manage[d], control[ed] and operate[d] the enterprise.'"

In the case of Steem, you buy the token through an exchange. Therefore it would be subject to judicial oversight under the auspice of the SEC. It is specifically not exempted from this by way of law, precedent or policy. Even if you are earning Steem by posting, the fact that you can buy it means that it is an investment asset and subject to these laws.

Here's the other thing that most US crypto holders still haven't gotten the memo on. Last year, the Trump administration pushed through "Tax Reform". In that bill, they changed a very subtle and important tax ruling that says if you buy one crypto token (ie. BTC) and you exchange it for another (ie. Steem), then you have created a taxable event. This means that the BTC that you spend has to be determined if there was a profit made on each coin used, and tax is now applied at that time on that profit. And if you convert Steem back to BTC, that's a taxable event. The value of the Steem at the point when you realize the token to something else (ie. BTC) is then taxable. Let's say you earn Steem that cost you $0, and you post a lot and build up $1,000 of value, and decide to cash out. You are then subject to the taxation on the $1,000 earnings at the rate of tax consistent with your total filings. You have to show the capital appreciation on your tax return for those assets when you file. If you have any questions on this, contact your CPA.

And further to this, as a US Person, specifically citizens, you are subject to taxes earned on worldwide income and you are responsible not only to file US tax returns annually regardless of where you are in the world, but there are additional forms required by FINCEN (managed by the IRS) for FBAR and FATCA laws based on if you have a total asset ownership (combined) anywhere outside of the USA of more than $10,000 at any one time. This burden further complicates things because Steem would be an asset, but where the asset is held is not yet settled law from what I can tell. My general sense is that at some point, FINCEN and the IRS will require all US persons to disclose their crypto assets under the auspice of the FBAR regulations, and failure to do this have severe penalties incl. jail time. Penalties that START at $10K per year, and the statute of limitations on them are not necessarily limited.

You can get the general idea. The US have a lot of laws here to reel in crypto under its control, and that just drives down pricing. Sure, technically crypto assets are free and in some cases completely anonymous, but just as you can have a big stash of cash buried in the backyard, if someone finds out about it, the penalties negate the benefits.

The price of crypto went sky high not because everyone's grandma went and bought some. It went high because investment organizations were able to trade it on the futures market, and some heavyweights started to show interest in it (e.g. Goldman Sachs, etc.). They have since pulled back a bit from their positions on it, and the price is reflective of that. If you add some extensive regulation to this space, then you get a BTC price at about where it should be, and likely that it will stabilize. My prediction is that this price is not $6K. Unless BTC is being used regularly in retail trade and there is demand at the cash register from stores to accept it, I think a more realistic price point is $2K. But that's just my speculation and nothing in this (or any of my) post(s) should be considered financial advice. I'm just sharing my thoughts on how I treat my own asset holdings. Steem falls into that category and as we've seen, when BTC drops so does all the alt coins (incl. Steem) and as you have recently seen the alts drop at a far greater velocity than BTC. ETH is a great example of this. Remember Steem was $6 each not too long ago. To drop to $0.75 each is a massive drop as a percentage, wheres even at the peak with BTC ($20K) to drop to $6K is nowhere near as substantial drop as a percentage. That means alts are speculative and highly volatile vs. BTC which is still speculative but less volatile. Even so, a reduction to 1/3rd of an asset's value is about 2x worse than the drop in real estate value we saw in the 2008 GFC.

For every starry eyed crypto investor thinking that they can cash in on the big wins here, there are 10x as many subject to losses. And the SEC knows this. They can't allow investments to have this level of volatility and consequently the laws are coming out, and policies enacted.

I'm not totally negative here. I mean I bought BTC $11 each back in 2011. I sold them at or near the highs. I wrote Uncle Sam a massive tax check and I look at that as a savvy investment. I've invested in many other things that didn't go anywhere near that well. Some lost money. Some made money. Some broke even. But these investment returns are fickle and few & far between. My advice to anyone in this space is to look to external factors constantly. Just like my blog article about learning to surf. You have to pick the wave you want to ride well ahead of it coming to you. Sometimes you have to just sit it out and not go into the water. There are a lot of sharks out there.