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Blockchain & Crypto vocabulary · Coins & Tokens

ICO

Meaning in blockchain & crypto, with examples

abbreviationCommon term

In blockchain & crypto, ICO means: Short for initial coin offering: a way for a new crypto project to raise money by selling its tokens to the public, usually before the product is ready.

In Turkish: ilk coin arzı, ilk token arzı

How it is used

Said letter by letter. ICOs were very popular around 2017, and many failed or turned out to be fraud. Regulators in several countries treated some ICO tokens as securities. Later forms include the IEO (run by an exchange) and the IDO (on a decentralized exchange).

Example sentences

  1. The startup raised 20 million dollars in an ICO but never released a working product.

  2. The lawyers told the team not to call the token sale an ICO.

Common collocations

  • launch an ICO
  • ICO investors
  • token sale
  • raise funds through an ICO
  • tokenA digital asset created on top of an existing blockchain, usually by a smart contract, rather than on its own network. Tokens can stand for money, voting rights, access to a service or a unique item.
  • whitepaperA document published by a crypto project that explains the problem it wants to solve, how its technology works, and how its token will be created and distributed.
  • tokenomicsThe economic design of a token: how many exist, how they are created and distributed, who receives them and when, and what they can be used for.
  • crypto assetA digital asset that exists on a blockchain or a similar technology and can be stored and transferred electronically. It is the wider legal term that covers cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and other tokens.
  • rug pullA scam in which the creators of a crypto project suddenly take investors' money and disappear, for example by removing all the liquidity from a token's trading pool.

More terms: Coins & Tokens

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