ICO

Abbreviation with 2 meanings

ICO
Stands forInitial coin offering
Meanings2
CategoriesTechnology & Computing

ICO has two meanings. It stands for Initial coin offering (cryptocurrency & blockchain) or Icon file (file format).

Meanings of ICO at a glance

#ICO stands forContext
1Initial coin offeringTechnology & Computing › Cryptocurrency & Blockchain
2Icon fileTechnology & Computing › File Format

1. Initial coin offering

Technology & Computing · Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Abbreviations

A fundraising method in which a crypto project sells newly created tokens to the public, usually for bitcoin or ether, to finance development. It is loosely modeled on an initial public offering but historically had little regulation.

Example: The ICO raised $30 million in a week, but the team never shipped the product.

Mastercoin held one of the first in 2013, Ethereum raised about $18 million in its 2014 sale, and the 2017 boom raised billions, much of it for projects that failed or proved fraudulent. The US SEC's 2017 report on The DAO signaled that many tokens are securities, and enforcement actions followed. Later variants include IEOs and STOs.

2. Icon file

Technology & Computing · File Format Abbreviations

Windows icon format that can store several images of different sizes and color depths, from 16 by 16 up to 256 by 256 pixels, in one file so the system picks the best size for each view. The file favicon.ico long supplied website tab icons.

Example: Put a favicon.ico with 16, 32 and 48-pixel versions in the site's root folder.

Internet Explorer 5 introduced the favicon.ico convention in 1999; modern sites can use PNG or SVG icons declared in their HTML instead. ICO files may contain BMP or, since Windows Vista, PNG-compressed images. The related CUR format stores mouse cursors with a hotspot position. macOS uses its own ICNS icon format.

More cryptocurrency & blockchain abbreviations

  • FUD – Fear, uncertainty and doubt
  • Gwei – Gigawei
  • HD – Hierarchical deterministic (wallet)
  • HODL – Hold on for dear life (backronym)
  • IEO – Initial exchange offering
  • IL – Impermanent loss
  • IPFS – InterPlanetary File System
  • KYC – Know your customer

See all 74 cryptocurrency & blockchain abbreviations →

More file format abbreviations

  • H.265 – ITU-T H.265 video coding standard
  • HEIC – High Efficiency Image Container
  • HEIF – High Efficiency Image File Format
  • HEVC – High Efficiency Video Coding
  • ICS – iCalendar file
  • IMG – Disk image file
  • INI – Initialization file
  • IPA – iOS App Store Package

See all 125 file format abbreviations →

Edited by the AbbreviationList.com team. Spotted an error or a missing meaning? Contact us.