A token sale or crowdfunding event offered by cryptocurrency startups, existing projects, and blockchains, looking to raise money from investors to fund new and ongoing development. It's very similar to initial public offerings (IPO) that take place in the traditional finance world of stocks. ICOs sometimes offer pre-sale or discounted token prices in exchange for capital investment
Example
“For example, during the 2017 ICO boom, projects like EOS raised over $4 billion by selling tokens to investors before the platform was fully developed, though many ICOs ultimately failed to deliver.”