The ICO Is Back: Why 2025’s Token Boom Looks Both Familiar and Dangerous

After years of decline, the crypto market now witnesses a powerful comeback of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). From projects raising tens of millions of dollars in minutes to the involvement of major players like Kraken and Andre Cronje, the ICO return in 2025 is stirring both excitement and anxiety among investors.

Is this the beginning of a new growth cycle or the prelude to another speculative bubble?

ICO Comeback – When the Market’s Capital Hunger Meets Easing Regulations

The ICO return is not an isolated phenomenon; it’s quickly shaping into a global trend. Within a few weeks, the market has seen a series of headline-making fundraising events. The most notable case is MegaETH, which raised $50 million in only five minutes and reached a $1 billion valuation, numbers reminiscent of ICO’s golden era in 2017.

Impressive numbers from MegaETH’s ICO. Source: MegaETH

At the same time, Jupiter (JUP), a leading DEX on Solana (SOL), is preparing to launch its new ICO platform this November. Meanwhile, Flying Tulip, the latest project from “DeFi Godfather” Andre Cronje, plans to raise $800 million through a public sale of FT tokens on its own ICO platform rather than relying on existing ones.

Not just emerging startups but industry giants are entering the new-generation ICO race. Kraken has partnered with Legion to launch MiCA-compliant token sales in Europe. Meanwhile, Cobie’s Echo introduced its Sonar platform, debuting with the Plasma project. Even Nomad Capital has rolled out BuildPad, an ICO platform designed for early-stage projects.

What fuels this new ICO comeback is the growing demand for fresh liquidity and regulatory shifts. For instance, the US SEC recently dropped its lawsuit against Dragonchain’s ICO, signaling a potential relaxation in enforcement. This shift could pave the way for more compliant, transparent, and safer token issuance models, ushering in a more sustainable era for on-chain fundraising.

Experts Warn: History May Repeat Itself If Investors Lose Caution

While the ICO return brings renewed optimism, experts are issuing strong warnings. The co-founder of Berachain believes that ICOs and public token offerings will indeed make a comeback, but argues that large-scale airdrops cause more harm than good by distorting market incentives and hurting smaller investors.

Market analyst Himanshu Malviya echoed these concerns, pointing to Coinbase’s $375 million acquisition of Echo as proof that the new ICO era will favor institutional investors and crypto whales over the retail crowd. The result, he says, is inflated expectations, drained liquidity from sustainable projects, and systemic instability.

“This pattern is not new. The mechanisms of extraction keep evolving, from ICOs to IDOs, from airdrops to points farming, but the flow of value always tilts toward those who already control the capital.” he warned.

Meanwhile, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX, cautions that the high FDV–low float token model erodes investor confidence. He argues that ICOs, if designed fairly, could serve as a “cure” to rebalance power between project teams and investors.

The new ICO wave presents a chance to redefine how on-chain fundraising works, but the risks are real. If projects chase short-term hype, the market could spiral into speculative excess again. Investors should see ICOs not as a “get-rich-quick” scheme but as a financial experiment in transparency and decentralization.

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