Are ICOs Back? Will 2027 Make Token Sales Great Again? | Web3 Devs Underground w/ Jumper!
βπͺ Are ICOs back?
βThe ICO story starts well before 2017. From 2011 to 2016 most new chains were copies and derivations of Bitcoin, different in that they offered a larger or smaller supply, or faster mining. Ethereum's ERC-20 changed that: anyone could launch a token without finding miners, and by 2017 a whitepaper and a smart contract were enough to raise millions from anyone, anywhere.
βLaunching a token got easy. Making a token economy work did not. Many teams walked away from tokens, many VCs went back to buying equity, and regulators spent years deciding what a token sale is and who may take part.
βNow public sales are filling up again. The road back was gradual: exchange-run sales in 2019, then launchpads, then vetted community sales with KYC, and now platforms that pick buyers on merit, with jurisdiction checks, caps and vesting built in. Subsquid's 2024 sale sold out in 19 minutes. Jumper just drew $48.6M in applications for a $3M sale, promising to make tokens great again.
βWeb3 Devs Underground brings Marko Jurina, David Langellotti and Shauli Rejwan together to dig into what changed, what really drives an oversubscribed sale, and whether this fixes tokens or starts another cycle. Shauli also brings the investor's view of what comes next: new asset classes moving onchain, and pre-IPO tokens, which let buyers into a private company before it lists. What does all of that mean for a company that wants to raise compliantly in 2027?
βπ€ Speakers
βMarko Jurina Β· CEO at Jumper
Jumper's JUMP sale on Legion closed on October 2 with $48.6M in applications from 9,690 applicants against a $3M hard cap, as Jumper spins out from LI.FI.
π¦ @zord4n
βDavid Langellotti Β· GTM Engineer, Web3 Devs Underground
Built entire marketing engines for dozens of ICOs during the 2017 boom, then spent four years at Subsquid, including the 2024 CoinList sale that sold out in 19 minutes.
π¦ @notdevid
βSaul (Shauli) Rejwan Β· Managing Partner, Masterkey VC
Early-stage investor in deep tech and Web3 infrastructure, and co-founder of Web3 Devs Underground.
π¦ @SHAP0W
βπ What we'll cover
βBefore 2017: the fork era and the ERC-20 moment
βThe 2017 to 2019 ICO boom from the inside, and why it ended
βWhy tokens broke, and why VCs went back to equity
βWhat a compliant public sale looks like now: KYC, jurisdictions, disclosures, vesting and allocation
βHow an oversubscribed sale really happens: sale mechanics, auctions and community, from Subsquid in 2024 to Jumper this month
β"Make tokens great again": what Jumper is doing differently
βNew asset classes onchain, and the rise of pre-IPO tokens
βWhat a team should prepare before a sale in 2027, and what it owes buyers after TGE
βAudience Q&A breaks throughout
βπ₯ Who should attend
βFounders and core teams weighing a token sale, developers curious how sale platforms work.
βπ‘ Event details
βπ
Wednesday, Oct 14
π 6:00 PM IDT | 5:00 PM CEST | 11:00 AM EDT
π Online, live on X, YouTube and LinkedIn
π Web3 Devs Underground event calendar
βThis is an educational discussion, not investment advice. Nothing in the session is an offer to buy or sell any token.
βAbout our sponsor: Masterkey Venture Capital is a global early-stage fund investing in deep tech and Web3 infrastructure.
βStay connected: Website Β· Linktree Β· Telegram Β· X Β· YouTube