Why token sales

Faster, cheaper, and more globally accessible than IPOs and venture rounds

The case for tokens

Done right, token sales have real advantages over alternatives:

Venture funding concentrates ownership with institutions. Your cap table fills with funds optimizing for their returns, not your community.

Low-float airdrops push price discovery to secondary markets. You launch without capital, and early holders often dump on retail.

IPOs take 12-18 months, require investment banks, and cost millions in fees. Geographic restrictions limit who can participate.

A well-structured token sale avoids all three problems. You raise capital, distribute ownership broadly, and let the market discover price — all in a single event.

The regulatory landscape

After a pause following the 2017-2018 boom, ICOs are re-emerging under new regulatory frameworks.

• Europe's MiCA regulation outlines compliant token offerings with clear disclosure requirements.

• Industry practices have evolved and now commonly include KYC verification and KYI (Know Your Issuer) to link token contracts to verified team identities.

The regulatory picture remains incomplete and subject to change. Legal counsel is essential. But the path forward is clearer than it's been in years.

Is a token sale right for you?

ICOs aren't appropriate for every company. Consider one only if a token makes genuine strategic sense for your product.

Good candidates

• Operate platforms or networks where a token can coordinate incentives among developers, users, or contributors in ways that equity cannot

• Can integrate real blockchain utility — governance, staking, or access rights — from day one

• Are prepared for the operational burden of managing a distributed holder base and ongoing compliance obligations

• Understand the risks: token prices are volatile, regulatory frameworks are still developing, and community expectations can be difficult to manage

Tokens probably aren't right if

• The token would be purely speculative with no functional purpose

• You're not prepared for public scrutiny of treasury management

• Your product has no clear blockchain integration

A successful fundraise is a starting point, not a validation of the underlying business. But these examples demonstrate the maturity of the ICO investor market and the viability of token sales as a fundraising mechanism.