Raising venture capital by issuing an ICO?

[mekie]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible, legal and ethical and has anyone raised funding for a non crypto business by issuing tokens/coins instead of shares?

If legal etc could this be one way cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream?

[Semosuchi Tesongrato]

ICO is the new way to rise capital giving coins instead of shares, because there is no the same control that there is with an usual IPO.
But this is the reason because in some countries ICOs are banned, and Facebook don't accept ICO advertising anymore.
You need to check the local legislation.

[Beerwizzard]

In theory it is possible to do whatever you want with tokens. You can even start a crowdfunding campaign where pwople will just donate you. The problem is that investors are looking for a pretty fast outcome of their investings. Like if ICO ended in january then everyone will be more likely to have a coin that may grow in february and they can sell it  right after pump. You can try to establich a company and issue tokens as its shares but they won't have a legal backup and won't be popular because of smaller profits. The  plan is real but pretty complicated.