What is an IDO? – All You Need To Know

If you’ve just entered the crypto scene you might have heard people talking about events called IDOs. But what exactly is an IDO?

Initial DEX Offering explained

An Initial Decentralized Exchange Offering (IDO) in crypto is when a company releases a cryptocurrency token on decentralized liquidity exchange. Decentralized exchanges are markets where one can buy and trade crypto peer to peer without an intermediary. This means, you don’t face the transaction fees or rules you find on centralized exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase. An initial coin listing on a centralized exchange is called an ICO.

If you’ve heard of IPOs (initial public offerings) in traditional finance and investing, IDOs are like the IPOs of crypto. IDOs are can be great opportunities to invest in projects at a low price. However, there are risks to be aware of when investing in an initial decentralized exchange offering.

IDO scammers everywhere

Unfortunately, the cryptocurrency market is still a Wild West, which means that is flooded with opportunists who are looking to make a profit. Some of these are straight up scammers. One wow the most common way people scam you in IDOs is by publishing fake contract addresses that make you invest into the wrong coin. Therefore, we urge you to always double check that you are using the right contract address before you invest.

In general, for every new cryptocurrency that gets listed in an IDO, there will be three to four fake cryptocurrencies that will list under the same name.

However, there are ways around these greedy people. For example, you can go visit the Twitter page of the project you want invest in and check if any influencers are following the cryptocurrency you want to buy. Make sure it is the correct Twitter page. Quite often you can get the contract address from there. We also advise you to check for the projects Telegram and Discord channels.

However, always be aware of fake Twitter accounts and Telegram channels. Double check to make sure it is the real one. If you’re new to the scene, it is best check the contract address on both, Twitter and Telegram. They should be the same. If not, you’ve got a fake contract address.

Bots send prices high in minutes

On some IDO launches, bots will send prices as high as 100x just minutes after launch. So, it’s very easy to get destroyed on IDO launches if you don’t know what you’re doing. What usually happens is that bots will buy up at the initial IDO price, and then they’ll dump it as soon as they’ve made a 100x. This sends the price back down as high as 80 or 90%.

If there are bots on a launch, you will want to wait 30 minutes or so until they’re done dumping. In the picture below, you’ll see the price of this IDO from today, Standard, went up to $3.00 and then dumped nearly 100% a few minutes later, offering a potential good entry. Of course this is different with every IDO, but keep an eye out for huge price surges right at the beginning of an IDO.

Final thoughts

This is the first part of a two-part series explaining IDOs (Initial Decentralized Exchange Offering). We will discuss more about investing in IDOs and strategies to have to make quick gains but also minimize risks in a follow-up article very soon.

If you liked this article, you might also like: What is an NFT and how does it work?

Please do your own research before investing in cryptocurrency. This article is not financial advice. Please be aware of the risks of purchasing cryptocurrency, especially on IDOs.