I'm not talking about ICOs. In fact, EtherDelta was one of the few projects that launched without an ICO, and before the ICO craze.

EtherDelta allows you to trade illegal securities, therefore EtherDelta is also illegal.

It allowed you to trade any ERC-20 token, indiscriminately. If you point an ERC-20 contract address to it, it would add it automatically to the user interface.

Also, I'm not talking about if it's illegal or not, the point that I can't get over is that the ED guy didn't scam or hurt anyone. It was an honest, transparent, open source project.

there are several issues at play: rules around trading securities and securities fraud. EtherDelta broke certain rules and that/s why the founder got fined about 400k in total. You are correct that EtherDelta wasn't a fraud or a scam - and that's why there is no criminal proceeding, no accusation of securities fraud.

the SEC doesn't give a shit.

if it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it's probably one in their eyes.

Coburn never would have settled if the SEC were that sloppy. You might disagree with the laws involved, but I'm pretty sure they had a decent legal case.

he's not in the clear from civil lawsuits which I'm sure this SEC settlement sets a precedent.

ICOs are securities so must be registered with the SEC.

Exchanges that trade securities must also be registered.

You can trade ICOs on an exchange as long as both are registered according to their respective laws...