GlossaryIntermediate
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
An early fundraising method where a project sells its newly created token directly to the public, generally before a product is fully built.
An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a fundraising method where a project sells its newly created token directly to the public, typically in exchange for an established cryptocurrency, generally before its product is fully built.
ICOs were a dominant crypto fundraising method particularly around 2017, and drew significant regulatory attention in multiple jurisdictions, including scrutiny over whether a given token sale should be treated as a securities offering — see Kaavon's "Howey Test" glossary definition for the framework commonly used to analyze that question in the US specifically.
Examples
- A project running an ICO typically publishes a whitepaper describing its planned technology and token economics before the sale.
- Regulatory scrutiny of ICOs significantly increased after 2017, as regulators in multiple jurisdictions examined whether specific token sales met the legal definition of a securities offering.