[friend_and_foe]

That doesnt satisfy #3. People buy gold expecting profit through no work of their own as well. Gold is a commodity. The key there is the efforts of others, someone has to do something for you to be profitable. Just speculating on something doesn't qualify.

Some tokens qualify as common enterprise and some don't. And lots and lots of tokens are sold on the expectation of profit, almost all of them.

[aardvarkr]

Gold fails #2. It’s not a common enterprise. There’s no investment contract to owning a piece of gold. Crypto tokens, on the other hand, are literally defined by contracts written in code.

[friend_and_foe]

A contract in the legal sense requires a counterparty, as well as legality and a benefit to both parties. This is not the same as a "smart contract" which is just a program.