What is ICO Investment? List of the Best ICOs in 2022

One of the five types of super-profitable crypto investments that cannot be ignored is ICO investment. So, do you understand what ICO investment is? Should you invest in ICO to earn profits or not? How to invest in ICO?

The article below from TradaFX will help you answer all these questions in the easiest way possible.

A compilation of the Best ICO List of 2022.

Here is the translation:

ICO Name	Description	Start Date	End Date	Rating
AI TECH	Solidus Technologies was founded in 2017 as an Ethereum mining organization and is now launching Solidus Ai Tech. Solidus is refining its in-house build of their environmentally friendly Data Center & Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform, where government agencies, megacorps, SMEs & professionals will be able to seamlessly purchase AI services using the world’s first AI utility token (AITECH).	18/11/2021	30/4/2022	9.9
QUARASHI NETWORK	Quarashi empowers the first all-in-one decentralized platform focusing on: Private chat, Decentralized exchange, IDO Launchpad, Multi-interface Blockchain cryptocurrency wallet.	15/2/2022	15/3/2022	9.9
RastaSwap	RastaSwap is a community-driven project. It was developed to become the #1 cryptocurrency cannabis ecosystem and bridge between traditional stock markets and cryptocurrency.	21/12/2021	1/3/2022	9.4
Revenue Coin	Holders of Revenue Coin (RVC) fund high-tech companies to scale marketing, sales, and social operations. Startup companies receive funding, with up to 10% of revenue allocated to purchase RVC from the market in a systematic manner, reducing supply and increasing valuation.	15/10/2021	5/12/2021	9.8
STREAM COIN	All-in-one live streaming platform based on blockchain.	1/2/2022	30/4/2022	9.6
YearnNFT Finance	YearnNFT Finance is an NFT marketplace based on BSC for minting and trading NFTs. YFNFT is the native token on BSC providing low fees.	19/11/2021	30/4/2022	9.1
Vingt	Operating towards creating a decentralized financial (DeFi) ecosystem governed by the “VGT” (Vingt) token aimed at filling the gap in the current DeFi space.	1/1/2022	30/4/2022	9.6
PAWĀ	Pawā is a multifunctional utility token. It provides cost-cutting options for device owners and those who have not purchased any ASIC machines. It will also become a key part of HashEX and BeMine staking protocol.	8/11/2021	31/1/2022	9.5
Peermoon	Peermoon is a DeFi mobile wallet that allows you to invest in various assets, such as cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs, loans, commodities, real estate, etc., track your portfolio, and manage finances conveniently within one app.	28/2/2022	14/3/2022	9.5
VAIYO	In the age of digital meetings, you need a secure, easy-to-use, and affordable app. But you can’t find an app that combines all these features in the current market.	21/10/2021	10/11/2022	9.6
Frodo Tech	Frodo Tech is a financial blockchain ecosystem and a member of the Blockchain Association of New Zealand (BANZ). We offer global financial services to customers with no limits on race or region. Audited by Certik.	1/12/2021	28/2/2021	9.8
Polygon Earning Platform	We are developing a play-to-earn (p2e) game on the Polygon (MATIC) network. We are launching NFT marketing and staking MATIC as planned.	15/1/2022	22/1/2022	9.2
AgroDeal Lab	AgroDeal Lab is a blockchain-based agriculture platform connecting farmers with markets, finance, tools, and resources.	1/1/2022	31/5/2022	9.2
BattleKnight	BattleKnight – Online cryptocurrency game (Strategy) where players conquer lands and fight for the right to become the leader. The game is fully balanced, with a vast universe and addictive gameplay, including modes like PVE, PVP with competitive ratings inside the game. All items are incorporated into the NFTs ecosystem. The in-game currency is the BKN token.	5/2/2022	30/11/2022	9.2
Veritise	Veritise provides verification, identification, data collection, and analysis services for companies and individuals. At the heart of these functions is X. Enterprise-grade blockchain verification for safe and immutable data storage and transactions.	3/9/2021	30/9/2022	9.8
MyCryptoCity	MyCryptoCity is a mobile game using Solana’s infrastructure. MyCryptoCity is a simulation game where players can earn MYCTY tokens by utilizing Solana’s infrastructure. Players make decisions by performing various actions from the dashboard, develop themselves by making the best use of options such as recruitment, resource usage, trading, and managing the city. They receive MYCTY tokens as a reward.	7/2/2022	5/3/2022	9.0
Cheetah Protocol	The fastest smart contract platform. Cheetah Protocol is building a low-fee blockchain smart contract platform capable of executing over 110,000 transactions per second.	1/2/2022	1/3/2022	9.1
Lucrosus Capital	Lucrosus Capital is a decentralized venture capital fund providing organizational benefits for individual investors through its token – $LUCA.	17/1/2022	17/4/2022	9.3
BKN	Brickken is a blockchain-based tokenization platform that allows for the tokenization of businesses and assets, offering investors the opportunity to earn passive income.	1/9/2021	28/2/2022	9.2
Bamonyo	Bamonyo is the cryptocurrency of a sustainable hotel chain project made up of smart tiny houses: Tiny Hotels. Bamonyo utility tokens will be the only way to access all services at the 10,000 hotels we plan to build from 2022.	1/11/2021	31/12/2022	9.6

  

1.WHAT IS ICO INVESTMENT?

ICO is a widely known concept in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry for community fundraising projects. 2017 can be considered the rise of ICO investment with hundreds of ICO projects launched. To understand ICO investment, you first need to grasp the basic concept of what an ICO is.

1.1. What is ICO?

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. ICO can be understood as the activity of publicly releasing a cryptocurrency to the public, also known as a crowdsale. When a company creates its own cryptocurrency to raise funds for project development, the ICO is the phase where they sell that cryptocurrency in the form of tokens before it is listed on exchanges, at a very low price.

ICO companies will issue a limited number of tokens and sell them to crypto investors, usually in exchange for platform coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or even fiat currency in some cases. The company will then use the raised capital to develop the product and project with the goal of increasing the value of these digital currencies. ICO investors will have the right to own and freely trade the crypto they purchased.

In fact, many ICO projects have been successful. For example, the Mastercoin project in 2013 raised around $5 million in Bitcoin from the sale of tokens, and clearly, the value of Bitcoin has increased significantly since then. Other famous projects include Ethereum in 2014 and Waves coin in 2016.

For companies wishing to enter the crypto market, ICO is an effective method, provided their cryptocurrency has potential, real-world applications, and is supported by a professional development team.

1.2. Differentiating ICO and IPO

When it comes to raising capital, many people think that ICOs are similar to IPOs. IPO stands for Initial Public Offering.

The difference between the two methods lies in the fact that shares purchased in an IPO represent the investor’s percentage of ownership in the company. For example, if the company issues 1000 shares and you buy 20 shares, it means you own 2% of the company. These shares cannot be sold to the public in the same way as ICO tokens.

On the other hand, when you invest in an ICO, the crypto tokens you purchase serve as a type of asset. You can own or trade them, but they do not represent ownership in the company.

Another important difference is that IPO companies are tightly regulated by the government. These companies must prepare a lot of legal paperwork before issuing their shares, and they are also held accountable if they do not comply with the regulations set by the government.

In contrast, ICOs are not regulated by the government, making it much easier for ICO projects to be launched without extensive preparation. Anyone can participate in ICO investments. This creates opportunities as well as risks for ICO investors compared to IPO investments.

When investing in the crypto of ICO projects, the functionality and application of the cryptocurrency will depend on the vision of each project, as well as the practical use outlined by the development team within the ecosystem. For example, a platform like Ethereum, which develops decentralized applications, allows the use of Ethereum tokens within applications operating on the Ethereum network. On the other hand, there are also fraudulent projects where the cryptocurrency is issued without any purpose other than to raise funds from investors.

1.3. Should You Invest in ICOs?

Why should you invest in ICO projects? The reason is that you will have the opportunity to earn significant profits by selling these ICO tokens at a high price, after buying them at a very low price during the ICO phase. You might even buy them at a better price during the private sale or pre-sale phase. If the ICO project truly has potential with a reputable and capable development team, the value of the coin could increase many times over after it hits the exchange, meaning your assets would multiply if you own them.

1.4. How to invest in ICOs?

Most ICOs are built on the Ethereum platform using the ERC20 protocol. There are also other platforms such as NEO, Qtum, Lisk, Komodo, Strat, ICX, and many other platforms that some ICOs use as their transaction network. ICO projects have their own contribution dashboards that those who want to participate in the projects can use to send and receive related information. Often, contributors need to register on the ICO whitelist to secure their share of the created token pool.

KYC is also commonly required from contributors. Each person sending digital assets to the project needs to verify their identity with the project by submitting a scan or photo of their official ID document. Participants on the whitelist and KYC documents need to have an appropriate transaction network wallet and the tokens accepted by the ICO to contribute in exchange for token creation. Contributors send their compatible wallet address to the ICO and send the desired number of accepted tokens to the wallet address provided by the ICO’s official communication channel.

Once the ICO technical team confirms that the contribution matches the wallet address associated with the verified KYC documents, the contributor’s wallet will be credited with the promised number of project tokens. Sometimes, the process from the end of the ICO until the tokens are transferred to contributors can take a few weeks due to the programming work required in between.

1.5. How to find the best ICOs and blockchain projects?

Initial coin offerings can be highly profitable for early contributors, but they come with significant risks. Even though the best return on investment from certain ICO projects has been nearly a million percent, over 90% of ICOs launched so far have failed to meet their milestones or generate profits for early contributors. Since the organizations and the entire business logic around digital tokens are still very new, it can sometimes be difficult to identify reliable and skilled early-stage blockchain teams and projects.

We also provide a list of some of the most reliable blockchain partners. If the ICO you want to invest in is working with any of our partners, that is definitely a sign of professional industry collaboration.

For general information and knowledge about cryptocurrency, check out coinlist.

2. OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS WHEN INVESTING IN ICOs.

Not only does investing in ICO projects contribute to building potential future projects, but it also helps establish a strong position for you when entering the market. The reason is that you purchase at the bottom price of that crypto coin, and you will still make a profit regardless of how the market fluctuates. Once the ICO project’s coin hits the exchange, its price will no longer be low, and the possibility of buying at the peak may occur if you invest at that time.

The reason behind this is that during the ICO phase, the tokens are sold at a fixed price in Bitcoin or Ethereum and are measured by the mutual trust between the investor community and the development team regarding the release of a more refined product in the future. Therefore, the ICO coin price is usually very low. After the project is carried out and the project’s crypto coin is put into use, the value of these coins will be backed by the quality of the actual product. A good product quality means the value of these crypto coins will rise.

Along with the opportunities, there are also risks involved when deciding to invest in ICOs. Most ICO projects fail or even turn out to be scams. During the ICO launch phase, after raising funds from investors, a fraudulent company could abscond with the money. In another case, if the development team is weak and unable to deliver the product as per the original roadmap, after the coin hits the exchange, its value will plummet, and investors will incur losses.

So where can investors find an ICO project? Some people tend to search on social media and buy into ICO projects that are trending, following the crowd. However, they often don’t know how to assess them properly. The problem is, when you learn about these projects through social media, many other investors have already invested in them, and there’s a high chance you’re investing based on FOMO (fear of missing out).

You can also refer to ICO projects on ICORating, which provides detailed information and preliminary evaluations of the projects. Here, you can filter potential ICO projects as well as those with high-risk levels to avoid. Information such as the website and whitepaper of each project is provided, helping investors make their own assessments. However, this should only be a reference source, and you should conduct further research before deciding to invest in any project.

3. CRITERIA TO EVALUATE AN ICO PROJECT

What criteria should investors focus on when investing in ICOs? Here are some key factors to consider:

Vision and Solution: Investors need to understand the idea, vision, and problem that the project’s development team is addressing through the whitepaper. They should also assess whether these solutions have potential in the near future.

Technology & Product: Investors should examine whether the project and its coin are built on a blockchain platform and which generation of blockchain it belongs to.

Mineable Coin (Explorer): This ensures that the coin is not manipulated or controlled by anyone, and transactions are conducted transparently.

Business Model: If the market size is too small, the potential for generating future profits is lower.

Development Team: The development team should publicly disclose information and possess the necessary expertise in the project’s field.

Project Roadmap: The roadmap should be structured with specific milestones and objectives for each phase.

Project Scale: This criterion relates to how the investor’s capital is utilized. If the amount of funds raised is too large compared to the actual costs, it becomes increasingly difficult for the coin’s value to continue growing in the future.

Marketing & Community: For a coin to hit the exchange and increase in value, the community within its ecosystem must be strong and share a common belief in the project’s future development. Investors can verify this through the project’s social media pages.

4. SIGNS OF A POTENTIAL ICO SCAM

So, how can you recognize an ICO project that might be a scam?

Anonymity: The first thing to look out for is when the development team behind the project is not publicly disclosed. This indicates that the trustworthiness of the project is very low.

No Exchange Wallet: Projects that lack a blockchain wallet for trading investments within the community are suspicious. Wallets are essential for exchanging and storing investments. To access these wallets, owners need a private key stored by a trustworthy third party, which is not related to the project. A project without this type of wallet is untrustworthy, as the investment funds are entirely in the hands of the project owners.

No Clear Goals: A vague roadmap shows that the project owners are unsure of what they’re doing. After the token hits the exchange, the project’s coin value will decline, and even the owner may not care because their sole purpose was to raise investment capital.

Lack of Transparency: The development team doesn’t disclose the stages the project is undergoing to investors, such as not releasing source code, product prototypes, behind-the-scenes workflows, or progress reports.

5. SUMMARY

In this article, TradaFX has explained what ICO investment is and provided a guide on investing in ICOs with some basic criteria. After reading this article, you should have an answer for yourself about whether or not you should invest in ICOs. See you in future posts on the crypto topic!