ICO hype took its last breath in July and the market is finally becoming more clever, providing a great opportunity for real projects with real ideas. The ICO 2.0 era is finally here.

We at agency.howtotoken.com have started a platform that aims to achieve the following goals:

Make prices for ICO services transparent

Build a network of real professionals with proven experience in the field

This is how our platform was born.

This new era has also brought about the end of scams, and that’s great news for everyone who is in process launching something valuable.

A brief history of ICOs

Let us look back on the main points of ICO 1.0 hype:

2014 July: Ethereum ICO (announcement)

2017 Q3: Sec the first strike (press release)

2017 Q4: ICO overtakes the Angel & Seed VC (more about that here)

2017 Q4: The huge Tezos ICO scandal (details)

2018 Q1: ICO funds raised drop beginning (statistics here)

As we can see, from the beginning of 2017 until now, the market has become more mature over time.

The time when you were able to collect money through press releases is certainly over; now this is done through general crowdfunding.

But there is still one important factor that will not allow ICOs to die outright: it’s an opportunity to receive liquid funding investments to innovative companies at an early development stage.

It’s truly an innovation in venture capital, and now with ICO 2.0 it’s possible for everyone in the world to invest in innovative projects at an early stage.

And that’s beautiful.

Forecast

Some predictions as to what will happen next:

All tokens will become securities but not stocks (light regulation)

No more giant seed rounds (step-by-step investments as it is with VC)

90% of the current projects will die and combine it’s resources for creating crypto funds

More crypto funds will appear, which will become the new VC funds (you won’t invest as a retail investor, but you’ll instead go through crypto funds that have the expertise to effectively manage these projects)

The ICO 2.0 era will lead to great new projects

If you are thinking about launching an ICO now, here’s a simple strategy that you could use:

Come up with a good, valuable idea

Work with private investors to receive bookings for your tokens

Community building (validate your idea by telling stories and receiving feedback)

Hold a private pre-sale round and gain an adequate amount of funding

Go public to receive retail investors and be ready to have token liquidity in case you’re going to the exchanges

Use funds to show traction and deliver based on your roadmap (don’t be afraid to pivot — that’s just how startups work)

Don’t forget that an ICO is like a crowdfunding campaign and you need to have a team with proven experience to help manage it. To help you with that, we’ve built a platform that will allow you to work with the best experts at fair prices.

How to launch an ICO 2.0

Here are the simple steps and services that can help you successfully complete your ICO:

Create an in-depth white paper (not just images with vague or indistinct explanations, but a thorough report on market analysis and what your company offers). (You could use our WP creation service for that.)

Prepare a short investment memo that will help investment analysts in different cryptofunds make a primary analysis without wasting time by going over a multi-page white paper with unspecific information. The next step is to build a list of investors that you will work with, just like the average IR process. (You could use our Investment Relation service for that.)

Before going to investors don’t forget to manage the legal aspects of your company. (Our Legal service will help you with that.)

During your investor outreach process start telling stories about your product and build the community (Content marketing, translation, and PR services will be useful here.)

Once you find success, start building your team of developers to create a real product from your MVP. (The Blockchain human resources service will be useful here.)

This topic was created by Kirill Shilov — Co-Founder of howtotoken.com and agency.howtotoken.com.

I’d be really appreciative if you could help me share this topic, and your comments will also be valuable. If you find mistakes or want to add something, just contact me directly through

About the author:

Kirill Shilov — Founder of Geekforge.io and Howtotoken.com. Interviewing the top 10,000 worldwide experts who reveal the biggest issues on the way to technological singularity. Join my #10kqachallenge: GeekForge Formula.