ICO
Initial Coin Offering — a fundraising method where a project sells its tokens to investors, broadly analogous to an IPO on the stock market.
See also
KYC
Know Your Customer — an identity-verification procedure that users complete on regulated exchanges to comply with the law.
AML
Anti-Money Laundering — a set of policies and procedures that exchanges and financial institutions use to prevent illicit financial activity.
Airdrop
A free distribution of tokens by a project, usually for marketing purposes or to reward early users. Be cautious: phishing schemes are often disguised as airdrops.
IDO
Initial DEX Offering — a token launch that takes place directly on a decentralized exchange, without a centralized intermediary.
Whitepaper
A project's official document describing its technology, goals, token economics, and team. It is the first thing worth reading before investing in a new project.
Tokenomics
A token's economic model: total supply, distribution between the team and investors, and mechanisms for burning or minting new tokens.