An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency space's rough equivalent to an IPO in the mainstream investment world. ICOs act as fundraisers of sorts; a company looking to create a new coin, app, or service launches an ICO.
Right now, the trend towards fundraising is through the use of ICO. Why ICO? Simply because its faster in terms of fundraising, its faster in terms of KYC, its faster in terms of how you get approval to invest.
1 year ago, someone from a third world country will not be able to invest in a top tier stock like Facebook or Google and not even mentioning their IPO..
Now, someone from a third world country can invest in a top tier blockchain company like ethereum, ripple, neo etc. Ok, that said, its not really the stock you are investing in, you are simply investing in their «goods» which is essentially the tokens.
With a faster liquidation time and a potentially higher ROI, people are starting to look more at ICO fundraising for sure. Lets see how long this trend sustains. One thing that is pretty exciting is the launch of security tokens. Security tokens resemble stocks way more than a simple utility token.
Until then, invest at your own risk. Only invest in projects that you have done your due dilligence on. Never risk what you cannot lose.
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