However, there is some confusion. Are ERC20 tokens ‘cryptocurrencies’ like Bitcoin or Litecoin or Dogecoin? The answer may surprise you. If you are an advanced Ethereum user, it won’t.

https://theethereum.wiki/w/index.php/ERC20_Token_Standard

Using the highlighted line of code, typical ERC20 token contracts (95%+ of all ERC20 tokens) assign all tokens to the ‘deployer’ (creator) of the smart contract initially. This means that, as far as the contract is concerned, that one ethereum account (one person or company) has ultimate control of all of the tokens. This is a Monarchy and is a telltale sign of a ‘Monarchy Token’ which is a token contract ruled by a single human .

Now, even if these tokens are ‘fairly distributed’ in an ICO or airdrop onchain or offchain, we will have no idea if they were ACTUALLY failry distributed or if the deployer airdropped tons to many secondary accounts they control. We also don’t know if they are buying into their own ICO with secondary accounts, acquiring the tokens for free since the ETH they pay ends up in their own back pocket anyways.