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.