With the market cap of cryptocurrencies growing from about $15bn in December 2016 to a staggering $815bn in December 2017, it is not surprising that the subject has found its way to many dinner table discussions. The parabolic rise of cryptocurrencies has seen everyone from average consumers to Wall Street wanting a piece of the action. While the launch of CME bitcoin futures in December 2017 introduced the modicum of regulation required for institutional money to invest in bitcoin, the general crypto-market is largely still an unregulated Wild West, where almost anything goes. Enter, the ICO. An initial coin offering is a (somewhat controversial) means of raising capital comparable to an initial public offering (IPO) in traditional markets. Instead of contributing fiat currency in exchange for shares in the underlying company as would typically happen in an IPO, the vast majority of ICOs involve participants contributing a well-known cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or Ether in excha...
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