Irrespective of what is said and done, at the end of the day the cryptocurrencies and ICOs is a smaller, more volatile parallel to the stock market. And all users on it are there for one purpose, to make smart investments and make money off of them.

In the cryptocurrency market, as a trader, there are two ways to make money. One is by daily trading of Bitcoin and all the other altcoins and the other is by investing in ICOs. Investing in ICOs essentially means funding a project or a product that is either close to your heart or you think will do well. From an investors point of view, investing in an ICO is much safer than investing in cryptocurrencies.

For those of you who aren’t involved in ICO investments yet, here are 5 reasons why you should consider starting now.

Safer Investment 

From a strictly investment’s point of view, investing in an ICO is three-folds safer than buying coins. This is because in an ICO, the tokens that a user will buy are, in most circumstances, very cheap and are definitely going to increase in value.

The only volatility an ICO token is susceptible to is when it hits an exchange. Even then, the price variation will depend on the demand and potential of the token, hence ensuring a rise in valuation, anyway.

Probably the only ICO tokens that fail to hold any sort of value are the ICOs that are being run for incompetent or unrealistic ideas that cannot be brought to completion. And that mostly will be easily identifiable in their whitepaper and their project idea.

So while investing in ICOs are safer, it is very important to make sure that the due diligence is done to avoid being the butt of a scam or scheme.

Faster Returns

If you’re in the game to make a quick buck, ICOs are your way. As an investor in any ICO you will be given priority and will be able to buy the company/project’s tokens at a very low price and after the token hits an exchange, its valuation will spike almost abnormally, making it viable for a profitable sell-off.

While most tokens do increase in valuation after hitting an exchange, its value will increase further if the problem the product/project is solving is something that is in high demand. Which again will become clear to the investor during the project recce.

Steady Growth

The hallmarks of a well planned and executed ICO is the steady trend of growth it shows during its development period. At the time of an ICO, the company conducting it chalks out a pretty steady roadmap as to what they wish to achieve when. In the event that they do manage to keep to their roadmap and their product is worthwhile and is solving a problem that has a high traction, their progress will reflect on the token’s value.

Investment in the Company’s Growth

Buying a token to a product that is under development is similar to buying shares from a stock exchange. The better the product does, the better your token does. So when you invest in an ICO you are not only investing in the token, but the idea and the vision of the team running the ICO.

There is no general thumb rule that can be employed to know which products are going to rise phenomenally, however steady growth can be predicted based on the product, team and their vision.

Speculation is Nil

A recurring market behavior is the massive fluctuation in the price of a coin. This is usually caused by regulators, scams, speculations and hacks. The news of any of the following things happening sends the market into a tizzy with investors conducting mass sell-offs to cut their losses, invariably affecting the market value of the coin for everybody else that is HODling.

This is something that will never happen in ICO investments. Mostly because there is no space for speculation and the value only fluctuates very little when it hits the exchange and it either sees steady gains or none at all. By investing in an ICO, you will not have to worry about market speculation, sell-offs and regulators singly targeting a token which in turn will adversely affect its value.

In daily trading, investors have to deal with speculation, regulation and fluctuation. In ICO investments, investors have to worry about and deal with legitimacy, vision and value along with regulation. The risk factor in an ICO is higher than that of daily trading, but there are many things that can be done to avoid them.

The major risk in ICO investment is making sure that you are investing in a project that is legitimate and is actually going to convert its vision into measurable growth. And the point cannot be stressed enough that before investing in any ICO, irrespective of the number of people talking about it, do your due diligence before jumping on board.

But when pit against each other, ICO investment, is a much safer investment bet than that of daily trading with cryptocurrencies in the market.