If you want to know how to buy ICO tokens or coins, you’re going to possibly need fiat (government-issued money), a bank account, Ether or Bitcoin, an email address, and more. (You’re not “buying an Initial Coin Offering”, you’re buying a cryptocurrency token or coin generated from the ICO.) You may even be able to pick some up for free or in a uniquely-structured offer.
(Sun Fund has an offer, check it out here.)
There are several ways to buy into an Initial Coin Offering. Just remember you’re not buying an Initial Coin Offering, you’re buying a cryptocurrency token or coin generated from an ICO.
An ICO is like an Initial Public Offering except it is for the cryptocurrency, not equity in a company. (Though you should find out what rights, if any, being a token holder confers to the token holder.) You can buy into an Initial Coin Offering (to get coins or tokens) with cash, or a different cryptocurrency depending on the ICO. The offer part is the terms: Investors give us x, we give investors y. There’s usually a time limit set, how many tokens are available, and more information listed.
Some ICOs may ask for Bitcoin as payment in exchange for their sexy, new alt-coin. An Ethereum ICO (or Initial Token Event) may request your Ethereum token in exchange for another ETH variant.
How to Buy ICO Tokens or Coins on an ICO Website
Try to verify as much as possible that you’ree going to the official/correct website in the first place: there are lots of scams, and your job is to avoid *all of them*.
Once there, read through their version of how to buy ICO which may involve registering an email address and giving more information.
Usually, an ICO asks people to pay in some other form of cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and Ethereum are popular go-to coins that function as the coin of the realm. An ICO offerer might ask you to transfer a certain amount of Bitcoin or Ethereum into their account in exchange for X number of their tokens.You may have to download an additional wallet for that specific cryptocurrency and make sure you have some of that in it.
Youll need to have whatever crypto they’re asking for to begin with, in fact, so buy some at a very reputable, highly rated exchange. Before doing that, try to visit some forums with the name of that exchange in it to see if the exchange is having any recent problems: Sometimes it can take them a while to process requests, in which case you’ll want to see the people complaining online. You don’t want your investment money tied up while your ICO window closes.
(Also: you have to remember that some of these transactions ask you to put your anonymous crypto into another anonymous crypto account: once you drop your crypto into some anonymous person’s wallet, your valuable crypto is gone and probably unrecoverable forever. There’s little to no recourse in this environment: Do your research. It’s very risky out there.) That’s one way how to buy ICO tokens.
How to Buy ICO Tokens or Coins on a Funding Portal
If your search for how to buy ICO leads you to a FINRA regulated portal (https://www.finra.org/about/funding-portals-we-regulate) in the United States, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised to learn you can buy an ICO with fiat currency – meaning, you wont have to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum firstly, and then exchange those for the new token being offered.
At a FINRA -member portal you may find SEC-registered offering documents and a clear path to investment with easy buttons to follow.
A website that *doesnt* take cryptocurrency payments may ask you to create an account and then invest. You’ll be asked to pay in any of several ways:
- ACH (Automated Clearing House)
- Wire (bank-to-bank transfer)
- Credit Card (Your branded credit card)
- Debit Card (similar to a credit card but it draws down money from an attached account)
(It’s important to note that some credit cards will not allow a purchase of cryptocurrencies at certain exchanges, so you may have extra steps to take. There are many resources on the web that may mention whether your credit card has been banned from purchasing tokens at cryptocurrency exchanges.)
You may also have to ascertain your investment limits depending on whether you’re accredited or non-accredited. Those things may be in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions, or help section) of a FINRA-regulated portal. They may ask for documents so that a how to buy ICO request doesn’t lead you into over-stretching your resources.
Try to have all of your banking information at-hand when you’re walking through their account setups, so you can enter information smoothly.
You’ll want to perform your own work on verifying what they say is true, possible and whether the issuers actually are who they say they are. Try to get into the habit of reading white papers and following ICOs that you’re not invested in so you can see how these things tend to go over time.
How to Buy ICO Tokens or Coins … Without Buying Them!
Airdrops are basically occasions of giving free tokens to people who download the wallet associated with that token. These are free, automatic deposits you probably don’t have to pay for (but might be taxable – check with an accountant.) Just do a google search for airdrops and you’ll be on your way.
Faucets are also ways of getting free tokens. Bitcoin Cash has one open now, for example, that allows everyone who finds it to get a free $0.10 deposit.
Good luck on your search for how to buy ICO tokens & coins.