ICO / IDO
First public sale of a project's new tokens.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is the crypto equivalent of an IPO. The project sells its new token and raises capital for development. The 2017 boom raised $7B but 80% of projects failed or turned out to be scams. IDO (Initial DEX Offering) is the newer version on decentralized launchpads (Polkastarter, DAO Maker). Today, Binance Launchpool and pre-TGE buying are also popular.
In plain words
First public sale of a new token. The project raises capital, and you buy at a starting price, usually very low. If the project takes off, you can make 10-100x. If it's a scam, you lose everything. Without code audit and team verification, most 2017 ICOs turned out to be frauds.
Example
Polkadot ICO 2017: start price $0.29, 2021 ATH $55 = 190x.
Also known as: ido, ico, tge