Top Four Upcoming ICOs To Watch in 2025

The ICO boom era of 2017-2018 is one of the hallmark moments of the crypto industry; thousands of projects launched token sales in the form of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), with notable mentions such as EOS (Block.one) raising $4.1 billion to mark the largest ICO ever. It is during this period that the crypto market witnessed one of the fastest expansion rates in its history, growing from a market cap of only $17 billion at the beginning of 2017 to $830 billion in January 2018 (50x within a year). 

Fast forward to 2025 and a new era of ICOs is taking shape; in this new paradigm, crypto teams appear to have learnt tough lessons, given that around 50% of the ICOs raised in 2017 never made it past six months, while over 90% eventually failed. The new wave of ICOs is characterized by companies with tangible products and proven development. A shift from the era of pump and dump speculative narratives to an age where value proposition comes first, coupled with other critical factors such as compliance with the necessary regulatory authorities. 

That said, it is still not as straightforward even for crypto natives to identify ongoing or upcoming ICOs that have a tangible value and are compliant. The next section of this listicle will dive into four handpicked projects with upcoming ICOs; these are among the few teams that are actively building and already have substance that could materialize into a significant upside for early entrants. Let’s dive in: 

1. True Trading 

At the top of the list is the True Trading ICO which is scheduled to commence on September 10th, 2025. This is one of the most anticipated ICOs in crypto; the team is building the world’s first decentralized exchange on Solana powered by native AI, True AI DEX. What particularly stands out is the timing of the project which coincides with a global shift towards the decentralization of financial markets and the mainstream adoption of AI-driven user experiences. 

With the upcoming ICO, True Trading is giving early entrants an opportunity to own a share of a new multi-billion-dollar self-learning AI protocol through its native token, $TRUE. The token has a fixed supply of 1 trillion tokens, with no inflation programmed. This ICO will be conducted in multiple phases, with the first stage leveraging a Dutch auction format, allowing the market to set a price for $TRUE. During this phase, 10% of the total supply will be allocated for sale in four tranches. 

According to the project’s whitepaper, $TRUE is designed to enhance the user experience and drive ecosystem incentives. Token holders who stake the token will be eligible for trading fee discounts of up to 50%, alongside other perks such as copy-trading multipliers and referral boosts. $TRUE will also serve as the credit or payment mechanism for AI service payments and access. It is also worth noting that True Trading intends to allocate 34% of the total token supply to multi-stage ICOs, while 41% will be directed towards user incentives and retro-drops. 

More importantly, True Trading has been built by a team of experienced figures who enjoy serious credibility within and beyond crypto circles. One of the co-founders of this project, Ben Bilski, was the founder of The NAGA Group AG, which he led to an IPO and a valuation of $460 million. Other notable figures include Valerii Marshalin (co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of INC4), Igor Stadnyk (founder and CEO of INC4), and Alex Momot (founder and CEO of Peanut Trade). 

2. Debank

Another standout upcoming ICO is Debank; although the project has yet to announce an exact date for its token generation event (TGE), it is already a familiar name among most DeFi participants. Debank is establishing itself as a leading platform for tracking Ethereum and EVM-compatible addresses, as well as Web3 IDs. The project’s main value proposition is to provide DeFi users with a seamless platform for tracking Web3 portfolios. 

Some of the core features include a time machine for comparing asset changes between any two dates, transaction history analysis mode, “change view” of portfolio, “summary view” of portfolio, and the flexibility to follow up to 3000 users and 300 official accounts. With these functionalities, DeFi users can monitor wallets, protocols, and asset flows across multiple chains, making it a much-needed solution as more retail users join the DeFi ecosystem. 

With the TGE on the way, Debank has already launched several initiatives to incentivize early users of its platform through a potential airdrop. This includes a referral program where participants can claim their XP and then use the referral link to invite more users, earning additional XP. There is also the option to complete quests or mint Web3 badges awarded for using the network. The most interesting one, however, is a Stream social Web3 feed that measures users’ contributions to the platform. 

It is also worth mentioning that this project has already raised a cumulative of $25 million from two funding rounds and is one of the most anticipated ICOs from the 2021 DeFi summer era. Some of the notable VCs that contributed to the raise include HongShan (ex-Sequoia China), Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, IOSG Ventures, and Circle Ventures. This long-standing credibility is an additional point for Debank that will likely materialize into measurable value for investors once the token launches. 

3. Lombard (BARD) 

Lombard is one of the most value-oriented ICOs of 2025 as it focuses on bringing Bitcoin to life on-chain. As it stands, BTC enjoys a market cap of $2.2 trillion, which is more than half the total crypto market cap; however, only a fraction of this figure is earning any form of yield apart from value accumulation. Lombard seeks to change this dynamic through its DApp that enables BTC owners to tap into DeFi yields through activities such as staking and lending, among other avenues available in DeFi marketplaces. 

This project has already raised $16 million in its seed round in July 2024 and $1 million in a private funding round. More notable is the recently concluded Initial Dex Offering (IDO), which attracted $6.75 million in funding. Investors who participated in this round are set to receive their tokens in the upcoming Token Generation Event (TGE), after which they can claim on Buidlpad. The token will debut at an implied fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $450 million, with only 1.5% of the total token supply allocated so far. 

With this type of traction, coupled with advanced functionalities to unlock Bitcoin’s liquidity, Lombard’s token launch is undoubtedly worth keeping tabs on. To provide some more perspective, Lombard’s stack includes LBTC, which can be staked to earn a native yield, vaults that are actively managed by leading risk managers, a DeFi marketplace, Bitcoin staking, Cross-chain Bitcoin, and tokenized institutional products. This is the type of value proposition that wasn’t available in 2017 ICOs. 

Notably, this project also boasts over 80 ecosystem partners, with some of the leading crypto firms featuring in the list. Blockchain and DeFi partners include Aave, Pendle, Uniswap, Morpho, and Maple. Meanwhile, noteworthy tech and security partners are OpenZeppelin, Elliptic, Immunefi, Chainlink, Hexagate, and LayerZero. Lastly, the ecosystem partners - Figment, DCG, Galaxy, Nansen, Anchorage Digital and Wintermute.

 4. Sentient 

Sentient’s ICO is another high IQ play; the project’s primary goal is to pioneer a new era in AI where the process is community-owned. According to a description on the website, Sentient is designed to operate as a non-profit committed to “advancing open-source AI technologies and building a decentralized, transparent ecosystem”. In other words, this project is supporting an Open AGI economy where builders and creators will be the stakeholders. 

So far, Sentient has raised $85 million in its seed round which took place in July, 2024. This round attracted several prominent titles, including Arrington XRP Capital, Founders Fund, Hack VC, HashKey Capital, Delphi Ventures, and Robot Ventures. Notably, Sentient is yet to announce its token sale and distribution date; however, it is arguably one of the earliest ICOs that prospective investors can tap into, given that the testnet is upcoming; users who pre-register for the fingerprinting campaign are eligible to own a dobby. 

As for the value proposition, it is about time for AI development to be made open and reduce the control that centralized players currently hold. Why? AI will form a huge part of our lives going forward, it is therefore imperative for the collective humanity to be involved in the development of AGI models and applications. This will not only create room for transparency or accountability but also provide an opportunity for contributing communities to monetize their input - a shift from the current state where only a few players are making the most out of publicly available data. 

Sentient’s team also comprises of experienced and well-known figures; the steering committee is made up of Polygon’s founder Sandeep Nailwal (strategy), Pramod Viswanath who is a Professor of Engineering at Princeton University, and Himanshu Tyagi (Professor of Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science). These figures are a testament of Sentient’s value proposition as an open AGI project. 

Conclusion

As 2025 enters the final quarter, there are several ICO opportunities that crypto investors or enthusiasts can leverage to get ahead of the pack. The beauty about this era of ICOs is that it coincides with regulatory maturity across many jurisdictions that were lagging in 2017; this means more structures to protect investors and solid projects that are not after a quick buck but rather focused on solving real pain points. The few examples highlighted in this listicle are a glimpse into where the ICO market is heading as 2026 approaches.