ICO

When discussing cryptocurrency, ICO stands for "initial coin offering." It is the moment or event in which a crypto company begins selling its cryptocurrency.

An ICO is much like an IPO, except for a cryptocurrency instead of a stock. However, those who purchase coins during an ICO are not purchasing ownership in a crypto company. Instead, they are purchasing the company's currency - which they hope will increase in value.

Because ICOs and cryptocurrencies are unregulated, nearly anyone can offer an ICO. As a result, a number of purported ICOs are actually scams meant to bilk people of their money. Before taking part in any ICO make sure to do your DD and determine that the company offering the ICO is both real and reputable.

When included in a recipient's address, ICO (in care of) denotes that a letter or package is being sent to a third-party, rather than directly to the recipient. For example, a package whose To: line reads as follows is being mailed to Lexical Industries, but ultimately intended for John Smith:

To:
John Smith
ICO: Lexical Industries
123 Made-Up St.
Fake City, NY 55555

As you might've already guessed from the above example, senders often use ICO when mailing letters or packages to a recipient's workplace, rather than their home. Senders also use ICO when a recipient is currently living at someone else's home. In some cases, you may instead see ICO written as C/O, which stands for "care of."

When you are discussing a matter that concerns a specific person, ICO stands for "in concern of." It is used to identify the person the matter concerns.

For example, in an email thread in which a group of managers is discussing new employees, one of them may begin a sentence with "ICO Sarah ..." before relating Sarah's job performance and future prospects.

However, ICO more commonly means "in care of," a phrase that is used to denote the person a letter or other message was intended for. Hopefully, context will tell you whether ICO is meant to mean "in concern of" or "in care of."