An Initial DEX Offering (IDO) is a method for a blockchain project to offer its token to the public market through a decentralized exchange rather than through a centralized one. By doing so, the token is immediately available for trading on a DEX, allowing users to buy and sell it as soon as the exchange provides liquidity. There is no central entity that conducts its sale or controls its participants through approval.
The majority of IDOs function by the establishment of a liquidity pool that features the new token and one already known and accepted asset, such as ETH or a stablecoin. After the pool goes active, anyone holding a wallet that supports the transaction can participate by exchanging tokens through the smart contracts of the exchange. The whole process is performed on-chain, meaning that the transactions can be scrutinized and confirmed.
IDOs became trendy due to their accessibility and speed. It’s just that projects won’t have to wait for the exchange to give them permission and users will not have to go through prolonged procedures to be in the loop; all they need to do is register an account and they are good to go. But this visibility has its downside too. A lot of the IDOs make their debut with scant information and then the project dies after a very short time of being online.
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To the investors, IDOs represent an opportunity to be among the first consumers and also a high-risk, high-reward scenario their potential losses are also greater. In simple terms, an IDO is a decentralized token launch where from the very first moment the trading opens on a DEX, the intermediaries are not controlling anything.