What You Really Need to Know About an IEO

Sera Berfu Akinci
MenaPay
Published in
3 min readFeb 6, 2019

One of the new fundraising approaches to crypto-banking is the Initial Exchange Offering (IEO). It has caught the attention of the ICOs and traders all around the globe.

In an IEO the startups are selling their tokens to investors in order to fund their projects. The IEO projects, however; rely on an exchange or multiple exchanges for crowdfunding. Let’s look at it closer: -

When the Initial Exchange Offering starts, the investors can buy the tokens from the exchange. This system is like involving a middleman between the startups and contributors. The IEO approach is beneficial for the start-ups as most of the developers are qualified in the blockchain, but they are not ICO experts. Thus, it is much better for the startup to rely on the expertise of exchange to ensure the process done in a secure way to both sides. Potential investors will feel more comfortable purchasing tokens using well-known cryptocurrency exchange platforms online and this system is a great advantage for those who want to invest in real projects.

Moreover, by having more diverse places to sell tokens, issuers will be able to reach a wider network other than their own websites. On the other hand, the customer will be able to reach trusted token offerings in their respective channels.

If you desire to participate in an IEO; here are the following steps you should take:

  • Research for an IEO: Since most of the blockchain based startups are financing their projects through ICO, the IEO’s are comparatively rare and you can just check the startup’s web-page or social media pages to see if they will be conducting an IEO or ICO.

For instance, MenaPay has announced that they will be conducting an IEO on the 15th of March 2019.

  • Find out which exchanges will be listing: Sometimes only a single exchange might be participating but find out which one will be.

Selected and approved cryptocurrency exchange platforms will be selling MenaPay Tokens. MenaPay’s official website will be announced soon!

  • Sign-up on the Exchange: Once you have figured out which exchange will be participating in the IEO; you can complete the registration; meaning a KYC/AML verification at the exchange and sign-up might take a couple of hours to a few days. Thus, make sure you are not doing it in the last minute.
  • Find Out Which Cryptocurrency Will Be Accepted: Even though Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most commonly accepted cryptocurrencies; some exchanges might use IEOs to promote their own native token.
  • Hold-up Until the IEO Starts!: You can now send your desired amount of cryptocurrency to the exchange. Later, you will be receiving the tokens in exchange.

Even though IEO is a new phenomenon, there is no doubt that it will continue to grow over time and make the cryptocurrencies and exchanges more tempting to a wider market!

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