What is an IDO?

CoinSwap
3 min readNov 29, 2021

The cryptocurrency community has shown exceptional innovation when it comes to coming up with robust ways to bootstrap projects and generate funds.

In late 2017, initial coin offerings (ICOs) became popular, in which teams raised funds by selling a portion of their total token supply to the public and rapidly became the primary use case for ETH-based coins. In the first quarter of 2019, initial exchange offerings (IEOs) made their debut, marking the success of popular projects that started as IEOs, including Matic Network, Elrond, Celer Network, and Band Protocol These projects benefited from listing on the exchanges that oversaw their token sale.

Choosing a cryptocurrency exchange on which to list a coin was a major problem for many developers and investors. Given the listing issue, maturity of the crypto space, and the growing popularity of decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap, a new approach to raising funds has emerged with the introduction of the initial DEX Offering (IDO). Recently, IDOs become a favorable way to distribute tokens and raise capital in the DeFi ecosystem due to their flexibility, high liquidity, and transparency.

According to CoinMarketCap, ‍an initial DEX offering (IDO) pertains to the launching of a cryptocurrency on a decentralized exchange that aims to raise capital and launch a project. Unlike its predecessors, ICOs and IEOs, which sold tokens before listing, IDOs immediately list them on a decentralized exchange (DEX). In other words, an IDO occurs when a blockchain startup first lists a coin on a DEX to source funds from retail investors. IDOs can provide a much more cost-effective approach for token sale and listing. As a model, an IDO facilitates quick liquidity in a DEX by utilizing accessible liquidity pools with little to no slippage. Similar to IEOs, it also enables instantaneous trading accompanied by lower listing costs.

In June 2019, Raven Protocol became the first-ever IDO to materialize, which was listed in Binance’s decentralized exchange, or Binance DEX. The project team set a particular price for the token and traders could purchase it until the hard cap was met. As a result, the first few IDOs took place in this manner on other major platforms like BZX, lending, margin trading protocol, and UMA, Synthetix assets.

Participating in an IDO varies depending on the launchpad. Regardless of the launchpad, there are a few parameters that most projects must meet. Coin Telegraph provides several procedures on how to launch an IDO consisting of the following: (1) devise a business strategy; (2) create marketing collateral; (3) visit a DEX launchpad; (4) create the cryptocurrency, and (5) launch the token to start raising funds immediately.

IDOs are the newest fundraising model for cryptocurrency projects. Although they have some limitations, such as limited scalability and barriers to entry, overcoming these concerns would be a challenging task. However, equipped with the necessary information and funding education in DeFi, nothing can break an investor’s confidence.

To expand its suite of products available in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) environment, Coinswap Space will implement an Initial Dex Offering (IDO) to promote open and fair fundraising, benefiting the developers and investors in terms of instant liquidity and immediate trading.

Join us soon in this project endeavor. Visit www.coinswap.space for more information!

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CoinSwap

The CoinSwap is a suite of products in Decentralized Finance. Perfect ecosystem for automated liquidity provision on Binance Smart Chain — AMM