What is an ICO?

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering.  Essentially it’s the launch of a new cryptocurrency. Although these are called coins, they are often labelled "tokens� because they are more like share certificates for participation in a venture.  Digital currencies aren’t a physical product, like the coins in your pocket, so this is a more accurate definition.

After the success of Bitcoin and Ethereum, there have been thousands of coins launched in the past few years. Every month there are new records being broken for both the number of ICOs launched and the amount raised.

How Do You Invest in an ICO?

There are two ways – firstly as many alt-coin ICOs are crowdfunded, you can invest just before the offering, as the coin is developed. This is called the “Pre-ICO” period. Basically, this is like being a “business angel” or VC.  Secondly you can invest at a later stage as the coin goes onto the market.  Obviously, most investors are hoping that the coin will rapidly increase in value and they can make significant gains.

This is how investors can take advantage of our service. We offer the ability for ICOs to list new tokens on our platform. As an investor you can invest in any of these new tokens as soon as they are listed. The earlier you invest the more likely you are to get the best purchase terms.

Examples of Recent ICOs

A start-up called Tezos raised over $230 million. The company has created its own blockchain — the technology that underpins the whole cryptocurrency sector. Another company called Bancor which plans on revolutionizing the banking industry raised $153 million.  FileCoin raised over $200 million. Every day there’s new ICOs breaking records.

The ICO Marketplace

It is important to be careful and diligent in investing in the new marketplace.  As with all cutting-edge technologies, there will be failures.  If you invested in Apple during the internet boom, you would be laughing all the way to the bank, but there were many busts like eToys.com.

Many new tokens are based on the Ethereum platform.  That is an intentional part of its design as a decentralised service.  Ethereum is the “second-generation” cryptocurrency, after Bitcoin, and so the team behind it built a more comprehensive structure so that it could be a vehicle for other coins, smart contracts, voting systems, and many other applications.

The majority of ICOs that we list use the Ethereum platform, others use the Waves, EOS, or NEO platform. Either way, we enable ICOs to list tokens on this platform for you to research.

It should be noted that a token being listed here does not in any shape or form, indicate an endorsement on our behalf. We have not personally invested or researched the companies listed here. It is up to you to do your own due diligence, and to research the investment. Only investors who are deemed to be accredited investors should use this platform.

You should always research the laws in your local jurisdiction and abide by these laws and regulations.