A common narrative of cryptocurrencies presents them as "trustless," decentralized, and autonomous systems. The "trustlessness" is meant to suggest lack of need for third-party verification in blockchain technologies, but the term has been somewhat conflated with broader connotations of "trust."...

For the past decade, Bitcoin has captured the attention of the world with its extreme price swings and yet constant price rises, outperforming most traditional asset classes. Along with Bitcoin came the phenomenon of the ICOs or Token Offerings, equally captivating, that turned start-ups’...

This chapter provides an overview of crypto tokens and token offerings. Based on both utility tokens and security tokens, this chapter reviews the economics of tokens and token offerings. Specifically, it discusses the economic value of tokens for the financing, operations, and corporate...

This chapter reviews empirical studies on the characteristics of initial coin offerings (ICO) and determinants of ICO success. This chapter contributes to the literature by providing a discussion on all key elements in a full-cycle ICO and conducts comprehensive literature review of the common...