ICO Red Flags Every Investor Should Be Aware Of
There are a lot of ICOs out there. ICObench alone has 331 upcoming ICOs listed, 641 ongoing ICOs listed, and an additional 908 ICOs that have already ended. You don’t want to invest in just any ICO either. You want to invest in the best ICO. Even more important, however, is investing in a legitimate ICO.
I’m not here to tell you what’s the best ICO out there. But I can get you up to speed on some ICO red flags that will, hopefully, help you avoid getting scammed. As always, the most important thing is to do your own research. Use this list as your springboard and go from there.
The following red flags will be broken up into High, Medium, and Low Risk. A red flag listed under Low Risk, for example, may not necessarily mean that the ICO is a scam – but it is still good to know any shortcomings of any particular ICO, because they may alter your investment decision regardless of legitimacy.
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High Risk Red Flags
No public profiles of team members – No one on the team has a public profile where you’d be able to see if their experience matches what they are doing in the ICO. Worse still, there is no team listed at all.
No public discussion allowed – Comments are turned off on all videos and posts. The community should be able to engage and ask questions. When comments are disabled, it seems like the ICO is trying to hide something.
Medium Risk Red Flags
LinkedIn profiles reveal little information – Too little information about the project or involvement in the project on team members’ LinkedIn profiles, or the profile was recently created, may mean that profile was made only for the ICO. This may mean nothing, but it is something to be aware of.
No hard cap – Neither the ICO website or whitepaper mentions anything about the hard cap.
Low Risk Red Flags
Team isn’t working on ICO full time – This doesn’t mean the ICO is sketchy, but it may mean that the project gets dropped due to lack of commitment or time constraints on the team
Unclear partnerships – Are there legitimate bodies supporting the ICO? Is anybody supporting the ICO?
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If you can think of any other red flags that others should be made aware of, please include them in the comments below. Stay safe out there!
Featured image: mohamed_hassan
