A utility token grants access to a service or product on a platform. It is not an investment. It is a key. Filecoin tokens pay for storage. Basic Attention Token rewards attention to ads. Chainlink tokens pay node operators for data feeds. The token has a job. Without it, the service does not work. That is the theory. In practice, many utility tokens are speculative assets that people buy hoping the price goes up. The utility is thin. The speculation is thick.

The SEC has scrutinized utility tokens closely. If a token is sold to investors with the promise of profit from a team's efforts, it is probably a security, regardless of what the project calls it. The Howey Test looks at substance, not labels. Projects now structure token sales carefully. They sell to accredited investors first, lock up team tokens, and delay public trading. The goal is to avoid securities laws while still raising money. Some succeed. Some get sued. The line between utility and security is not always clear, and the courts are still defining it.

Utility token examples

• Filecoin — pays for decentralized storage
• Basic Attention Token — rewards users for viewing ads
• Chainlink — pays node operators for data
• Render — pays for GPU rendering power

A utility token needs a working product to have real utility. Without that, it is just a token.