What is the Difference Between an ICO and an IDO?

Prabhash
5 min readJan 19, 2022

Initial DeX Offering (IDO) is a hybrid of ICO and IEO; the only difference is that centralized exchange (CEX) is replaced by decentralized exchange (DEX). The only difference is that IDO is replacing the centralized exchange (CEX) with a decentralized exchange (DEX). For the purposes of ICOs, IEOs are managed by cryptocurrency exchanges rather than selling tokens directly to the public, which are sold through exchanges.

Like ICOs, IEOs involve distributing new crypto tokens to investors or the general public. With the help of IEO, projects can raise funds using the client base of exchanges and start trading their tokens shortly after that. The exchange facilitates the sale of tokens and assumes some responsibility for the success of the IEO by dealing with various aspects such as marketing, security of funds, and investor vetting.

Here, companies sell their tokens directly on exchanges to individual participants rather than offering them in an ICO. IDOs have similarities to Initial Exchange Offers (IEOs), where crypto projects launch their tokens and raise funds through centralized exchanges, as both allow for instant transactions in addition to fundraising. There are several ways to sell tokens, namely an Initial Coin Offering or ICO, a Security Token Offering or STO, an Initial Exchange Offering or IEO, the latter being an Initial Dex or IDO Offering. IDO is a fundraising method for issuing IDO tokens through a decentralized liquidity exchange.

How did the Concept of ICO begin?

What started with the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) boom in 2017 and then IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) is now focused on IDO, or the initial DEX offering, a new type of decentralized and permissionless crowdfunding method. With the advent of ICOs in 2013, an entirely new way of crowdfunding for blockchain projects appeared in the crypto space. However, it attracted many scammers due to the lack of rules. As a result, ICOs lost their appeal, and new ways of fundraising were introduced.

However, many projects conducting ICOs flood the market with their tokens. ICOs have popularized cryptocurrency-based crowdfunding, with many projects raising millions of dollars to fund their development. It’s easy for startup projects to raise funds around the world through ICOs.

At the same time, other experiments were carried out, including the Decentralized ICO (DAICO), a concept proposed in 2018 by Vitalik Buterin, who followed the logic of ICO fundraising but improved it on a.o. However, the same fate befell STO when another method appeared in the industry called IEO (Initial Exchange Offering). It started with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), then moved on to an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), and finally a more preferred method known as an Initial DEX Offering (IDO).

It is actually very similar to the Initial Public Offering (IPO) that a new company uses to raise funds when it first goes public. IDO is a third-party platform that controls the exchange, and the token sale itself is somewhat decentralized. In some ways, IDO’s fundraising method is similar to IEOs, ICOs, and STOs, despite being based on DeFi, which has created a way to develop innovative, reliable, and easily scalable open finance. The latest in digital crowdfunding development, IDO is being launched by a decentralized exchange (DEX), which conducts due diligence before including a project in its foothold.

It refers to teams that generate blockchain-based tokens to fund their activities by selling tokens directly to investors at a discounted price. The term comes from the traditional financial term initial public offering (IPO), which refers to the sale of shares by a company to raise money from the public. For businesses, this form of fundraising is often faster and cheaper than more traditional methods, such as an initial public offering (IPO).

Blockchain projects conduct public ICOs to raise funds from the public and retail investors. ICOs are often used to launch new products or services in the cryptocurrency market, such as cryptocurrency applications or tokens. Key Findings Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are a popular fundraising method used primarily by startups looking to offer products and services typically associated with cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

ICO, STO, and IEO (IDO, also known as Initial Dex Offering) are some of the more familiar terms we use in the cryptocurrency world. They all refer to fundraising on blockchain platforms. ICOs, STOs, and IEOs are different methods of raising funds through cryptocurrency exchanges, and they each have their pros and cons. A comparative study of these three options will help you choose the right approach for a particular project. Whether the project decides to fundraise via an IEO on a centralized exchange (CEX) or an IDO on a DEX, many experts believe that both options are gradually replacing the ICO option that paved the way for blockchain-based fundraising.

An increasing number of projects are simultaneously launching IDOs on multiple blockchain launch platforms and issuing tokens on various smart contract platforms. Using these DEXs, the original DEX offerings (IDOs) can become an alternative to their centralized predecessors. The initial DEX offering is becoming the preferred method of distributing tokens and raising capital on DeFi, along with IEOs and ICOs.

IDO and ICOs: The Crucial Steps

Instead of exchanges, projects and tokens are controlled by members of the voice community, which is why tokens issued through IDO are listed on the DEX. Most importantly, IDO allows users from different countries to participate in an exchange that will sell tokens from a specific token provider such as Raven Protocol. In addition, IDO solves some of the problems that are present in IEO; for example, issuers are not allowed to list tokens on competing exchanges.

In IDOs and ICOs, token issuers pay no direct fees to intermediaries, which is more in line with the ethics of Bitcoin and its successors. However, each IDO and ICO issuer is responsible for its own marketing. Each must create a smart contract for selling tokens, including arranging any due diligence and conducting their own due diligence. A company with an ICO project must publish a white paper, a website for the related product, and a team that implements the project’s methodology. In the case of an ICO, similar to the initial public offering (IPO) process, the issuer assumes all responsibility.

While IDOs and IEOs are listed directly on exchanges — decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, in the case of the former and centralized exchanges for the latter — IDOs is a do-it-yourself process, just like ICOs. In a sense, ICOs and IDOs have more in common with each other than initial exchange offerings, which share more than a few of the characteristics of a traditional initial public offering in the stock markets. However, unlike ICOs and IEOs where tokens are sold before listing, with IDOs they are immediately listed on a decentralized exchange (DEX), hence the name.

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