Awesome Token Sale

Curated list of token sale / ICO resources

This list is to help navigate the token sale landscape and provide resources to help in the process of launching a successful ICO / token sale.

Contents

• Introduction
  • Articles
  • Videos
• Related Services
  • Advisory
  • Legal
  • Financial
  • Banking
  • Investment
  • Development
  • PR
  • Business
• Legal / Regulatory
  • Legal Structures
  • Legal Resources
  • Legal Videos
  • Regulatory Resources
• Whitepapers
  • Examples
• Smart Contracts
  • Libraries
  • Token Examples
• Bounty Campaigns
  • Campaign Types
  • Campaign Examples
• Community
  • Forums
  • Chats
  • Conferences
  • Meetups
  • Community Organizations
• Marketing
  • Listings
  • Podcasts
  • Press
  • Advertisements

Introduction

Articles

• WTF is an ICO? - TechCrunch
• What Initial Coin Offerings Are, and Why VC Firms Care - Harvard Business Review
• Blockchain investment vehicles: the future of global retail investment - CoinFund
• Why ICOs Fail - ICONOMI
• Fat Protocols - Union Square Ventures
• Crowdsale anti scam/phishing guide - Scanate
• How Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain-based Startups Are Turning The Traditional Venture Capital Model on Its Head - StartupManagement
• Trick or Treat? Investment in Blockchain Cryptoassets - CoinFund
• Exploring Continuous Token Models: Towards a Million Networks of Value. - Consensys
• Blockchain investments and the new problem asset for conventional VCs - Coinfund
• Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model
• How to Successfully Raise Millions in an Initial Coin Offering
• Initial Coin Offering: Crowdfunding of Blockchain Ecosystem
• The dawning of the age of the ICOs
• ICO and the Emerging Decentralization of Crowdfunding
• ICO and the Emerging Decentralization of Crowdfunding
• Everything you need to know about blockchain ICOs
• Blockchain startups make up 20% of largest crowdfunding projects
• A gentle introduction to digital tokens
• Crypto Tokens and the Coming Age of Protocol Innovation
• The Bitcoin Model for Crowdfunding
• Making Blockchain Real for Enterprises: The Importance of Tokenization
• Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model

Guides

• How to Raise Money on a Blockchain with a Token - GDAX
• How Civic Sold $33 Million Dollars in Tokens with Zero Marketing
• Handling Crowdsale Funds Securely
• The 4 Stages of a Token Sale

Cryptoeconomics

• Cryptoeconimcs 101
• Antifragile Cryptoeconomi Systems
• Economics of Entangled Tokens

Evaluation

• How to Evaluate an ICO
• Investment Guide To 'Crypto' Coin Offerings Rating Blockchain Startups
• 4 Criteria For Evaluating Blockchain ICOs
• How Not To Be Scammed By An ICO

Videos

• Token Summit Videos

Related Services

Advisory

• Argon Group - Full service token sale advisory - (Blockchain Cap, Civic)
• TokenMarket - Full service token sale advisory - (FirstBlood)
• NewAlchemy - ICO strategy and investments
• ICO Hub - ICO Consulting from the Waves team
• Cryptonomos - An innovative platform for conducting Token Launches and servicing tokens
• Sutton Stone - ICO consulting associated with Mauritius

Legal

• Switzerland
  • MME - One of the first firms to offer token sales - (Ethereum)
• US / International
  • Perkins Coie - Have helped with mutliple token sales - (Civic)
  • Cooley - Has helped multiple token sales, funds, and exchanges
• Slovania
  • NovakRutar - (Aragon, Cofoundit)

Financial

• Bitcoin Suisse AG - Financial services - Switzerland - (Status, Ethereum, Tezos)
• Ambisafe - Offer various services around token sales - (TAAS)

Banking

Investment

Accelerator

• Boost VC - (SF) A family of founders making Sci-Fi a Reality.
• Cofoundit - Distributed VC - (Cofoundit, Musiconomi)
• Starta ICO
• Coinsilium - (London) - An accelerator that finances and manages the development of early-stage blockchain technology companies.

Institutional

• Digital Currency Group - Digital Currency Group is an venture capital company focusing on the digital currency market. It is located in New York City.
• Winklevoss Capital - Winklevoss Capital is a family office founded in 2012 by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss. The firm invests across many asset classes with an emphasis on providing seed funding and infrastructure to early-stage startups.
• Blockchain Capital - Blockchain Capital is a venture capital company that invests in blockchain related companies. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
• DFJ - Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a California-based venture capital firm that funds companies in seed, early, and growth stages.
• Union Square Ventures - Thesis-driven venture capital firm. It invest in networks, infrastructure for the new economy, and enablers of open, decentralized data.
• Andreessen Horowitz - Andreessen Horowitz backs bold entrepreneurs who move fast, think big, and are committed to building the next major franchises in technology.
• Pantera - Pantera Capital is an investment firm focused exclusively on ventures related to blockchain tech and digital currency.
• BlueYard - BlueYard invests in founders with transforming ideas that decentralise markets, empower users and liberate data.
• NewAlchemy
• Kryptonite1 - UK based publicly listed investment company
• Outlier Ventures - Outlier Ventures invests at the convergence of decentralisation and other deep technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things, 3D printing, and mixed reality.
• Fenbushi VC - First China-based venture capital firm that exclusively invests in Blockchain-enabled companies

Hedge Funds

• Polychain Capital - (US) Polychain Capital manages a hedge fund committed to exceptional returns for investors through an actively managed portfolio of these blockchain assets.
• BKCM - (US) BKCM LLC is a global investment management firm specializing in Global Macro and Currency investing.
• The Token Fund - (RU) The Token Fund provides an opportunity for investors looking for the simplest way to get into the decentralised economy.
• MetaStable - (US) Founded by Lucas Ryan, Joshua Seims and Naval Ravikant. It offers a concentrated portfolio of crypto assets that have the strongest chance of emerging as long-term winners across a wide basket of use cases (store of value, smart contracts, stable coin, prediction markets, anonymity, storage, new approaches to governance and consensus, etc.).
• Exagon Fund - (US) Exagon’s vision is to create investment strategies that provide potentially high-yielding, uncorrelated returns in a world of low-yielding, correlated assets.
• Solidus Capital - (MX) We are a Hedge Fund specialized in Cryptocurrencies Investments focused in Latam’s Family Offices, VC and High Net Worth Individuals as investors.
• GABI - (UK/JERSEY) Global Advisors (Jersey) Limited has created the first institutional-grade Bitcoin investment strategy (“GABI”).
• CoinFund - (US) A blockchain technology research company and proprietary cryptoasset investment vehicle.
• FBG Capital - (China) - Hedge fund that invests in emerging blockchain technologies and digital assets. FBG is designed to bridge the biggest innovations in the blockchain space with Chinese capital market.
• Hyperchain Capital - (Singapore) Digital assets hedge fund in the new economy

Development

• DistributedLab - A crypto & decentralized technology expertise center, consisting of 30 experts — researchers, developers, analysts.
• EtherionLab - Smart contract development - (Humaniq)
• Smart Contract Solutions - Authors of OpenZeppelin - (Golem, Storj, Blockchain Capital, etc)
• LightCurve - Blockchain-based software solutions for corporations of any kind. - (Lisk)
• Applied Blockchain - Application, Blockchain, etc development

Resources

• Top 20 Blockchain Consulting Companies - Gartner

PR

• Wachsman PR - PR team with extensive token sale experience - (Lisk, Aragon, etc)

Business

• Deloitte

Legal / Regulatory

Legal Structures

Investment Structures

• SAFT

Organizational Structures

• Stiftung

Legal Resources

• Introducing the Blockchain Token Securities Law Framework
• A Securities Law Framework for Blockchain Tokens
• Legality of bitcoin by country or territory
• The Law and Legality of Smart Contracts
• BitLegal Map
• Appcoin Law: ICOs the Right Way
• Virtual Currency Report - Perkins Coie LLP

Legal Videos

• Law & Ethereum Panel Discussion - Ethereum London Meetup
• Is Grey the New Normal in Legal & Compliance?

Regulatory Resources

• IRS Virtual Currency Guidance - IRC
• Ponzi schemes Using virtual Currencies - SEC
• Regulating ICOs: Striking a Balance in 2017
• The Bank Secrecy Act, Cryptocurrencies, and New Tokens: What is Known and What Remains Ambiguous - Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coin Center (May 20, 2017)
• SEC Charges Bitcoin Entrepreneur With Offering Unregistered Securities - SEC
• Why Cryptoequity May Not Be Securities - Lawbitrage (Nov. 12, 2014) In this piece, NUY Law Professor Houman B. Shadab discusses a number of factors that would make certain tokens less likely to constitute securities.
• How are Cryptocurrency Investments Different than securities Investments? - Jason Somensatto - Coin Center (Feb. 11, 2015) Distinguishes tokens sold primarily for an “consumption motive” from tokens likely to be considered securities.
• Stanford Cyber Initiative About Blockchain Tokens - Josh Boehm, Dax Hansen and Josh Boehm Speak - Virtual Currency Report (Apr. 12, 2017) Linking to a slide deck featuring analysis of token sales under securities and other laws.
• Legal Aspects of Smart Contract Applications: Digital Asset Sales and Capital Markets, Supply Chain Management, Land Registries, Government Records and Smart Cities, and Self-Sovereign Identity - J. Dax Hansen & Carla L. Reyes - (May 2017) Discusses the application of the Howey test to digital asset sales.
• A Securities Law Primer - SELC e-resource library, CoummunityEnterpriseLaw.Org. Discusses in detail the United Housing Foundation v. Forman case, which held “when a purchaser is motivated by a desire to use or consume the item purchased . . . the securities laws do not apply.”
• Bitcoin Financial Regulation: Securities, Derivatives, Prediction Markets, and Gambling - Brito, Jerry and Shadab, Houman B. and Castillo, Andrea - (January 15, 2015). Columbia Science and Technology (2014). Proposes that certain bitcoin denominated instruments that may otherwise fall within the Howey test for investment contract be excluded if they are “bitcoin economy transactions” – transactions in which the entire use of the instrument is within the blockchain ecosystem in which the token was created.
• Could your decentralized token project run afoul of securities laws? - Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coincenter (Sept. 20, 2016) Describes a number of elements that will make a token less likely to fit the Howey test, including building “tokens that have a use-value and are not mere speculative investments.”

Whitepapers

Examples

• Civic
• Status

Smart Contracts

Libraries

• OpenZeppelin - An open framework of reusable and secure smart contracts in the Solidity language.

Token Examples

• Consensys Tokens - Ethereum token examples

Bounty Campaigns

It's common to use bounty programs as a way to incentivize people in the community to help out with smaller tasks in exchange for tokens during or before the token sale.

Campaign Types

• Bitcointalk Signatures
• Whitepaper Translations
• Articles and Blog Posts
• Twitter Posts or Follows
• Facebook Posts or Likes
• Bugs

Campaign Examples

• Spectiv
• Polybius

Community

Forums

• BitcoinTalk
• CryptocurrencyTalk

Chats

• CoinFund Slack - #crowdsales
• Cryptopia Slack - #ico-analysis

Conferences

• Token Summit - Conference on the emerging token-based economy - NYC, NY
• Consensus - Blockchain technology conference - NYC, NY
• Devcon - Devcon (Ethereum Foundation) - Cancun, MX
• EDCON - European Ethereum Development Conference - Paris, France

Meetups

• Ethereum Meetups
• Bitcoin Meetups
• Blockchain Meetups

Community Organizations

• Chamber of Digital Commerce  – @chamberdigital
• Hyperledger

Marketing

Listings

• Smith & Crown
• ICO Bazaar
• ICO Rating
• TokenMarket
• ICO Alert
• ICO Crypto Reddit
• CryptoCompare
• ICO Countdown
• ICO List
• CoinList - Partnership beween AngelList and Protocol Labs
• ICO Calendar
• Token Investor
• Token Sale Calendar - Evan Van Ness' token sale calendar
• imToken ICO Dapp
• CoinSchedule
• CyberFund
• ICO Timeline
• ICO Tracker
• Token Report
• Fund Yourself Now

Podcasts

• Coin Interview
• Lets Talk Bitcoin
• Unchained
• Blockchain Innovations
• Epicenter

Press

• Cryptocurrency
  • Coindesk
  • CoinTelegraph
  • Bitcoin Magazine
  • CoinJournal
  • CoinReport
  • BlockchainNews
  • CoinSpeaker
  • CoinFox
  • CoinIdol
  • TheMerkle
  • CryptoSmile
  • Newbium
  • Forklog
  • AllCoinsNews
  • NewsBTC
  • CryptoCoinNews
  • Bitcoin.com News
  • BlockchainTechNews
• General
  • Rueters
  • Forbes
  • TechCrunch
  • Yahoo Finance
  • Product Hunt
  • Nasdaq

Advertisements

• CoinMarketCap
• CoinFox
• CoinDesk - Financial sponsored content
• CoinGecko
• CryptoMinded - Currated list of cryptocurrency sites

License

This list is released into the public domain.