The market for initial coin offerings (ICOs) has seen quite the rise in 2017 as investors have been pouring billions into blockchain based startups; these large fundraisings have been done without any real regulatory oversight until recently; in July the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report stating that the offering by the company DAO was a securities offering; Chinese regulators issued statements over the past few months stating their intention to look at the market and this past weekend they deemed ICOs illegal in China; while companies have been able to secure vast amounts of capital there has also been increased cases of theft and fraud; the coming regulatory wave is sure to change how market participants act. Source