The pros and cons of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)
Well, you have got an amazing startup with a cool idea to create a new cryptocurrency space. Maybe, streamlining the digital payment system for a fashion hub with encrypted and authenticated processes. So, for instance, let’s name it as GlamourCoin. But to create a digital currency, you need real money. The traditional way to raise capital is to try getting venture capitalist investors into your business or go to a bank — but at a cost of the ownership, at times.
Instead, now you could raise funds without giving up on your ownership and that’s through ICO — Initial Coin Offering. It is the modern way that helps you to raise money from individuals and businesses. ICO allows individuals and companies to finance their projects by selling tokens to access the network of services and products or the entire company’s ecosystem.
Each crypto coin has two sides, so it is important to explore the pros and cons of ICOs. Before we can begin to understand them, we need to get a basic idea of what an ICO is.
Depending on the universality of exchange and user requirements, token purchases may be limited to a certain number of individuals. Unlike public ICOs, where projects can offer their tokens to any buyer, token sales on an exchange (IEO) can be open to all traders on a given exchange.
ICOs do not have to comply with regulatory frameworks or legal protocols, and most ICOs are not publicly recorded. However, when an ICO project issues a white paper or an IPO, its format is standard.
It is a great way to invest, store and secure your cryptos by purchasing tokens, but the introduction of a token is different from selling capital via an initial public offering (IPO), as it is the same as selling digital keys. For cryptocurrency projects, a public initial coin offering (ICO) or initial exchange offering (IEO) is a fundraising opportunity for these products. Before the advent of the IEOs, the ICO was the main means of raising funds for new projects.
The fundraising aspects of crowdfunding and crowd selling, be it fiat money or crypto (the latter includes the fact that there is no kind of soft or hard cap that has to be achieved to be valid). An initial coin offering (in some cases also referred to as an initial currency offering) is a kind of financing mechanism used by cryptocurrency projects.
Read More: What is an Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?
Getting to know more about the ICOs
An ICO sells a lot of cryptocurrencies in the form of tokens or coins to speculators and investors in exchange for legal currency or other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Tokens and coins are being promoted as the future functional currency unit, and the ICOs funding targets are being met before the project is launched.
During the implementation of an IEO, new projects join forces with an exchange to monitor the symbolic sale. In contrast to public ICOs, an exchange offers a platform for ICO sales. The exchange influences the marketing of the project and the symbolic sale itself.
Money paid to the Ethereum or Bitcoin exchange fund of the team developing the project brand. Unlike fiat currencies such as banknotes or cryptocurrencies such as coins, tokens use cryptocurrencies because they use cryptocurrencies with many decimal places, allowing fractionalization. If the token is used as the local currency, it gives the holder various powers over the project.
Token sales, also known as initial coin offerings or ICOs, are a mechanism for raising capital for companies by issuing virtual currencies. ICOs are cryptocurrency-based crowdfunding models that help start-ups raise capital to finance their business growth. An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the process whereby a private company shares the public through a new issue.
Considering that ICOs are like an IPO the Wild West of fundraising, they are subject to strict regulations, complicated registration requirements, and can take months. ICOs require much more time in planning, writing white papers, creating tokens, and collecting funds, so the success of an ICO itself is a long process. Some ICOs use tokens in their crowd sales, causing users to switch from tokens to crypto coins.
While part of CryptoTokens’ current appeal is the lack of a regulatory structure for initial coin offerings, a successful development market has downsides. ICOs are not the most efficient way to secure a project and finance its development until it is completed. Without ICOs, investors may not be motivated to complete the project, underscoring the problem of creating systematic fraudsters.
In their new paper “Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens” by Catalini and Joshua S. Gans, professor at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, apply economic theory to show why cryptocurrencies have value in the first place. The paper identifies the commitments entrepreneurs make to fund their ventures through ICOs, and discusses how monetary policy toward tokens affects fundraising.
Read More: How to Choose a Promising ICO Investment?
ICO: A Golden Ticket
An initial coin offering can seem like a golden ticket to get a project off the ground for startups. It seems to be a quick, straightforward way to secure access to funds with a low barrier to entry.
When investors decide to buy an ICO token, they get on the ground floor of a promising new company. A token is a placeholder for a new cryptocurrency or coin that a startup company hopes to pay through an ICO. The company sells tokens to encourage people to join the company at a low price.
In the world of cryptocurrencies, an ICO has many parallels to a stock market flotation. A company collects and passes on cryptocurrencies to prospective customers in the form of a new crypto token.
Whether you are a start-up founder seeking to raise money from investors or evaluating an unproven project, it is important to know what it takes for an ICO to succeed. Suppose you own a Silicon Valley start-up that has an entirely new concept for a cryptocurrency system.
Initial Coin Offerings are a popular way for start-ups to raise money in exchange for project brands. For an ICO to be successful, it is important to spot the signs of a risky project. A vague, poorly written White Paper is a sign that the project is not well planned.
It is now the second most powerful cryptocurrency in the world and offers dApp creators a platform to develop their projects. ICOs allow investors to invest in tokens that have the potential to be filthy cheap.
The further the success of the project progresses, the higher the price of the token, which increases the assets many times over. If you take the opportunity to sell when the price goes up, it is possible to make substantial profits. The unit price of tokens in ICOs is very cheap and can be purchased in large quantities.
