Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton warned lawyers Monday that the agency's staff is “on high alert” for approaches to initial coin offerings, or ICOs, that “may be contrary to the spirit of our securities laws and the professional obligations of the U.S. securities bar.”

Clayton told attendees at the Securities Regulation Institute that unregistered securities investments offered by unregistered promoters “with no securities lawyers or accountants on the scene, are, in a word, dangerous.”

However, he pointed to two examples of how attorneys' handling of ICOs is lacking.