The words you should never use when talking publicly about your ICO (ICO is one of them!)

This article was originally published on 9/22/2018 and some of its information and claims may no may no longer be relevant in the current blockchain space.

The long version of this article was published first on LinkedIn on 9/22/2018. The crypto market is evolving rapidly. Check our latest articles here or on our blog for our most recent perspective.

Creating messaging that promotes your token sale is dangerous. Although it might seem like a simple matter of hyping up the product and using buzzwords that make your team sound like they know what they’re talking about, if you aren’t careful your project could fail and you could end up in jail.

Now that we’re done scaring you, we can start talking about what you can do to keep your project and your team safe.

Remove the “bad words” from your vocabulary

There are a number of words and phrases that many ICOs in the past have used that can make contributors nervous or result in penalties from national regulations. Propulsive has developed a general list of the types of words you should never, and we repeat, NEVER, use when publicly talking about your ICO.

The words are as follows:

Bad words = > Good words
Competitors = > Market participants/partners
Investors = > Token holders/contributors
Problem = > Issue/challenge/predicament
ICO/pre-ICO = > Token sale, Token pre-sale
Total token size/packet size = > Total token supply
Risks = > Ambiguity/uncertainty
Profit/income = > Benefit/good/interest
Invest = > Contribute

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it should give you a general idea of what you should and shouldn’t say. Take this list as a reference when you are communicating about your project, and consider what words you might be saying that you really shouldn’t. Your marketers, PR professionals, community managers, token sale developers and anyone who publicly represents your company needs to be aware of the regulations on the ICO market. They should be well versed in our list of words to not say in particular.

Why is this happening?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has heavily cracked down on token sales in the past couple years to protect people from being manipulated by the widespread ICO market of scams, misleading messaging and illegal conduct.

For example, according to Regulation D, rule 506, companies may not, “Use general solicitation or advertising to market the securities.” This includes marketing on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which have since banned any token sale advertisements on their sites.

Developing messaging for your token sale can be tricky. There are a number of words or written implications that can make institutional contributors very nervous, or worse yet, cause legal trouble for your company.

What’s the big deal if we do use them?

Breaching SEC regulations can have a disastrous result on your company and yourself. For example, AriseBank bought and sold unregistered investments, lied about their products capabilities and features and paid for a celebrity endorsement. The result of this was the SEC obtained a court order to immediately halt their token sale, which had raised $600 million, and arrested both of its co-founders.

To learn more about how you can protect your company, click the link to read our full guide, ‘The words you should never publicly use about your ICO (ICO is one of them!).’

Propulsive is a PR and marketing firm helping up-and-coming businesses in the blockchain industry define their messaging, find their market and exceed their own expectations.

Follow Propulsive’s Linkedin company page to get the latest news, and learn more about Initial Coin Offerings.