Library · Crypto, word by word · The basics
What is a crypto project?
A crypto project is the people or organisation behind a blockchain, token or app, together with what they build and publish: the code, the token, the website and usually a whitepaper. "Project" is the word crypto uses where other industries would say company, team or product.
What it means for you
Everything a project says about itself is its own claim. Before buying its token, the questions the SEC's chairman set out in 2017 still apply: who exactly is behind it, where the money goes, what rights the token gives you, how and at what cost you could sell it, and whether the code has been published and independently audited.
A common mistake: “A project with a website, a whitepaper and an active community has been checked by someone.”
In fact: All three are made by the project or its supporters, and no one has to check them before they are published. The contract, the holder list and the markets where the token trades are the parts that can be checked.
How it works
A project can be a registered company, a foundation, a loose group of developers, a DAO, or a single anonymous person, and many change form over time; a token can keep trading long after its team has moved on. The 2017 statement lists further questions: whether there are audited financial statements, whether trading data can be verified, what happens if a wallet key is lost, whether the offering was structured to comply with securities laws, and what legal protections exist, and can be enforced, after a fraud, a hack or a downturn. A whitepaper records what a project set out to build; the token's contract, its holders and where it can actually be sold show what exists now.
Source: SEC: Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings, Chairman Jay Clayton (Dec. 11, 2017) · checked 5 October 2026
On Cryptominium
Related words
Educational content, not financial advice. Written by hand and checked against the source named above. Something wrong? Tell us and we reply within two business days.