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ICO (Initial Coin Offering)

A fundraising method where new crypto projects sell tokens to early investors before launch.

An ICO, or Initial Coin Offering,
is a way for new crypto projects to raise funds
by selling their tokens to early investors —
before the project is officially launched.

It’s similar to an IPO in the stock market,
but with fewer regulations and much higher risk.

How it works

  1. A project creates a new token.
  2. They sell it to the public, often in exchange for BTC or ETH.
  3. Investors hope the token’s value will rise after launch.

Why it matters

  • ICOs helped fund early crypto success stories like Ethereum.
  • But they also attracted scams and rug pulls
    during the 2017–2018 bull run.

Because of this, many countries introduced stricter regulations
or banned unregistered ICOs altogether.

💡 Lanzo Tip

Before joining any ICO, research the team and tokenomics carefully.
If there’s no clear use case or working product,
it’s usually just hype wrapped in a whitepaper 🚨