>"The bit that wasn't initially obvious to me is that these are all literally just investment rounds. They're just raising money and the "coin" is in many ways

>"The bit that wasn't initially obvious to me is that these are all literally just investment rounds. They're just raising money and the "coin" is in many ways similar to a share." This is kind of where my understanding of ICOs falls short. My understanding was that ICO coins don't entitle one to any equity in the company just the coin: "ICOs are the Wild West of financing — they sit in a grey zone where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and many other regulatory bodies are still investigating them. The main problem is, though, that most ICO’s don’t actually offer equity in start-up ventures; instead, they only offer discounts on cryptocurrencies before they hit the exchanges."[1] If that's the case it's not like a share at all. Wouldn't it be more like a credit default swap or other derivative? [1] https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-initial-coin-offerings-are-and-why-vc-firms-care https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-initial-coin-offerings-are-and-...