Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
Also known as: Token Sale, Crypto Crowdsale, Blockchain Fundraising
A fundraising mechanism where projects sell new tokens to early investors, typically before listing on exchanges.
An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a fundraising model used by blockchain projects to raise capital by selling newly minted tokens to investors. ICOs became popular in 2017 and enabled early access to tokens before they were listed on exchanges. Projects outline their goals, tokenomics, and roadmap in a whitepaper. Investors send crypto (typically ETH or BTC) in exchange for the new token. While ICOs democratized fundraising, they also led to many scams and regulatory scrutiny due to lack of oversight. Today, ICOs have largely been replaced by IDOs and STOs with stronger compliance.