There are two main families of crypto-assets: digital tokens and digital coins..

In the first (the token family), there are two sub-categories: security tokens and utility tokens.

Utility tokens :

Utility tokens are digital tokens that provide a "right of access" to a company's products or services. They are not intended as investments. Utility tokens are only needed in the specific context of the project for which they were created. These tokens do not give any title or share of ownership in a company. Companies use this type of token to generate interest in their products or services provided in blockchain ecosystems.

Like a metro ticket, it gives access to a transport service, but is not useful and has no value outside it. Nor does it give access to the transport company's property.

The value of a utility token correlates with its actual demand for project use, but also with the maximum number of tokens issued.

Public sales of these tokens are known as ICOs (Initial Coin Offering).

Security tokens :

Security tokens are digital tokens that grant a right of ownership over a non-digital asset. These tokens are subject to federal securities laws.

For example, we can offer the digital representation of a company's shares, or the ownership rights to a building, in the form of a security token.

Buyers of this type of token hope to profit from their investments as they would from shares. Utility tokens exploit the speed and efficiency of blockchain technology while benefiting from government regulatory measures offering protection against fraud.

Public sales of these tokens are known as STO (Security Token Offering).

Howey test:

This test was instituted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946 to identify the category of an asset. Since a token is an asset, it is sufficient for one of the following conditions to be validated to classify a token in the security token category, the investment is :

-> made with money.

-> carried out in a "normal", "centralized" company.

-> carried out with the intention of profiting from the efforts generated by the promoter or third parties.

If none of these three conditions is met during the test, then the token under study is utilitarian.

It's hard to tell the difference between these two types of token, but I hope I've made things clearer for you!