A SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) is an investment contract used by crypto-asset projects to raise capital before their token has been launched. Under a SAFT, accredited investors pay funds today in exchange for the right to receive a future allocation of tokens once the network is functional or another defined milestone is reached. The instrument was developed in 2017 to give early-stage token issuances a structure that international securities regulators would more readily recognize.
The SAFT borrows its architecture from the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) used in conventional venture financing — the investor parts with capital today and accepts that the form of consideration will be defined at a later, well-specified event. The crucial difference is that the SAFE matures into equity, while the SAFT matures into tokens. Investors are usually qualified or accredited, and the offering relies on a securities exemption (in the U.S., commonly Regulation D Rule 506(c) for accredited investors).
SAFTs typically include conversion mechanics tied to token generation event (TGE), discount rates against the public sale price, valuation caps, transfer restrictions, vesting/cliff schedules for the tokens to be received, and milestone or regulatory-completion conditions. In practice, founders also negotiate side rights — pro-rata for future token sales, information rights, and most-favored-nation clauses — that mirror equity rounds.
From a regulatory perspective, a SAFT does not eliminate securities-law analysis; it structures the offering so that the investment contract layer is governed by securities rules while the eventual token, if and when delivered to users, is intended to be used as a utility on a functional network. Whether that final token still constitutes a security is jurisdiction-specific and fact-intensive. Issuers using SAFTs typically pair them with a regulatory perimeter analysis under U.S. (Howey, Reves), EU MiCA, Türkiye SPK, and UAE/ADGM regimes, depending on investor location.
SAFTs are particularly common in protocol launches with delayed-token-issuance roadmaps, decentralized infrastructure projects, layer-1 and layer-2 blockchain networks, and DePIN/DeSci ventures where on-chain delivery is genuinely future-dated. They are less appropriate where the token already exists and trades on secondary markets, or where the project’s near-term plan involves a non-accredited retail sale.