In this post I’m going to explain how our rating/grading works and what each number in the rating breakdown means.
Each ICO needs to score at least a “B” grading or above 2.5 as a rated average to be listed on Top ICO List. This qualification is done via our rating system which I’ll breakdown for you below.
Each ICO goes through a checklist consisting of 13 main categories and 20 subcategories for a total of 33 items. The ICO is evaluated according to the checklist by giving a number for each category. The total weighted number (not all questions are equal so we attribute more weight to some) is the ICOs total rating and based on the rating a grade is given.
Total checklist score to grading scale:
| Rating | Grade |
| >4.5 | AAA |
| 4.1-4.4. | AA |
| 3.6-4.0 | A |
| 3.3-3.5 | BBB |
| 2.9-3.2 | BB |
| 2.5-2.8 | B |
| Rejected | C |
Here’s what each main category number in the rating breakdown means:
| Rating category | How to evaluate | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Team legitimity | How experienced is the team in terms of blockchain and project industry track records? | 3 |
| First Impression | What kind of first impression the ICO website and whitepaper gives? | 3 |
| Potential of tokenization model | How appealing is the token from both project business and ICO investor's point of view? | 3 |
| Hard Cap | Is the hard cap of the ICO appealing from investor's point of view? | 3 |
| Token allocation + Fund allocation | How are the tokens allocated after token generation? How are the funds raised from the ICO going to be distributed in moving forward with the project? | 3 |
| Professionalism of the available material | How good are the marketing materials of the ICO? | 3 |
| Realism of the roadmap compared to the team size and budget | The roadmap is divided into 4 tiers according to different amounts of money raised | 3 |
| Partnership network | Has the ICO announced partnerships, if so how big and credible companies are they? | 3 |
| Background of the managing organization | Has the managing organization a successful track record in business? | 3 |
| Size of social media communities | How big are social media communities, especially Telegram and Twitter following? | 3 |
| Reviews on other ICO sites and media | Are there other reviews of the ICO available? | 3 |
| Is it easy to find the relevant information from the provided materials? | Is it easy to find the relevant information from the provided materials? | 3 |
We go through such an extensive and laborious process to vet that we only list projects that are serious and have potential.
Albeit the huge profit opportunities in ICO investing, there are several risks included in ICO investing that you should be aware of before participating in an ICO. ICO industry has started as a self-governed system without any regulations, as regulations are still under development and haven’t been able to stay in pace with the development of the ICO market. According to studies around 80% of all ICOs are scams due to lack of regulations, and therefore it is an attractive market to scammers and you should take precautions to stay safe from them. To do this, you should always follow these guidelines regarding ICO risks:
