What is ICO
ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. It is a form of crowdfunding, used by startups.
Imagine a team of developers who are working on a new promising project. They might need to raise money from public, so they create their own cryptocurrency. Those who want to support the project, would buy the rights of token possession during the initial crowdsale phase. As a result, the project gets the capital to fund development, and the audience members get their tokens’ shares. This whole process is called ICO.
It’s very important to understand that during the initial phase new coins don’t exist yet, people are buying IOU (“i owe you”) – not the coins themselves, but the obligations. As soon as fundraising phase is over, IOUs are being transformed into usual tokens.
What exactly does HitBTC provide in terms of ICO
Check out the “ICO” tab in the “Instruments” section on our exchange.
You are able to buy ICO coins directly on our exchange and store them on your HitBTC account.
You don’t need to spend time looking for new promising ICOs and figuring out how to join them – the most interesting tools are already here. You don’t even need to leave HitBTC – our familiar interfaces are here for you, participating in ICO feels exactly the same as buying any other coin.
As tokens are released, you are the first to trade them right here, on HitBTC, which also is great. You’ll be able to trade, deposit/withdraw them – it’s exactly the same deal as with every other coin.
What can and what can't be done in ICO trading
Deposits and withdrawals
They are not available until the token issue date. ICO coins basically don’t exist until that date. There’s no blockchain for them. That’s why it’s not possible to perform transactions, send coins somewhere.
Within a few days after token release date it's becoming possible to deposit and withdraw them on HitBTC.
Trading
Trading is perfectly available. You can purchase ICO coins and sell them.