ICO Investment Guide

An initial coin offering (ICO) is a fundraising method that trades future crypto coins for cryptocurrencies which have an immediate, liquid value. With the right ICO, you can gain a huge profit, however picking a bad ICO can easily lead to complete loss of investment. There are tons of ICOs out there and most of them is not in a good position right now.

So how can I make the right decision? Here are some questions you should ask yourself before investment.

1- Idea
What kind of value does this project bring to our world? What's special about the project? Does it solve a problem or another copy paste idea? What makes this project different among others?
Remember, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency in this area and Ethereum brought something completely different. Thats why Ethereum investors made huge profits.

2- Is the blockchain necessary?
Why this project uses blockchain technology? Is it necessary to use blockchain? What is the token usage? Why do we need to use this token?

3- Team
Does the team capable of developing the project? Do they have a blockchain experience or have they worked in successful companies?
%65 of all-star ICO's have also all-star team members well-respected in their fileds or had worked for well-respectable companies.

4- Advisors
Who is the advisor of the project? Does she/he well-known in the industry?
%59 of all-star ICO's had all-star advisors.

5- Investors/Partnerships
Which company is the investor/partner of the project? Does the project have well-known investors/partners? (Like Neo Global Capital, Pantera, Fenbushi etc.)

6- Protoype
Does the project have a prototype? Do they deliver something working? At least does the project have a MVP or demo? I personally want to see something working. Do you want to invest your money to an on paper project?
Do not forget, %90 of best performing ICOs had a prototype.

7- Roadmap
How does the road map look to you? How do they go about timing? Are they delivering at the time?

8- Hardcap
How much is the hardcap? Do they need to raise that amount money in order to deliver a working product? What was the competitors hardcap?
For me, it is ideal less than $25M.

9- Tokenprice
What is the token price? Is it high or normal?

10- Total Supply
What is the total token supply? Personally for me , it is better to invest projects with low token supply.

10- Token Distribution
Does the token distribution seems reasonable? What is the percentage that team is holding? What is the percantage that advisors or investors holding? Can they dump the price? Can it become centralize?

11- Bonus
What is the bonus they are offering to early investors? Does it have a token lock time? Can they dump the price?
For me, higher than %20 is unacceptable and also bonus without lock time is unacceptable.

12- Market
What is the possible market size of the project? Is it niche or a broad area? Is it an favorite business to invest? Can the project overcome the market competitors?
For me investing in infrastructure projects are better than others.

13- Whitepaper
Does it look transparent to you or does the team hides some information? Does it look high-quality or a cover-up?

14- Hype
How many people aware of the project? How many people are active in the project's telegram or twitter? What are the thoughts of ICO analysts?
Hype is an essential part of ICO investment but do not follow FOMO. Personally I do not like the projects that uses google or youtube advertisement.

15- Media Research
What people are saying on bitcointalk.org? Any FUD's about the project? Can you find information/review/comments about the project on google?

These are my rules for ICO investment. By following these rules, you may lower your chance to make a wrong decision.