What is a security token offering (STO)? The advent of Bitcoin in 2009 made Blockchain mainstream. While cryptos and other blockchain-related financing garnered the standing of being volatile and speculative, there's a wide consensus regarding the value of blockchain technology and other types of distributed ledger technology in finance. Large institutions across banking and technology, such as for example JP Morgan, Square, and Facebook, have entered the blockchain space. Moving forward, we'll see more names as blockchain begins to play an ever-growing role in payments systems, including CBDCs and stablecoins, and the context of liquidity, via asset tokenization through security token offerings. The term 'tokens' immediately evokes thoughts concerning ICOs, a technique for raising capital for crypto projects and popularized in 2017, which can be where we'll begin our journey. What is an initial coin offering (ICO)? ICO, short for initial coin offering, is similar in concept to initial public offering (IPO), as both allow startup companies and entrepreneurs to boost funds. While securities get issued in exchange for investment in an IPO, coins or tokens are given to investors in ICOs. The process where a company ICOs is straightforward, but having less regulation within the US and abroad around ICOs has generated fraudulent crowd sales, illegal airdrops, and outright scams. The ICO craze in 2017 tarnished the trustworthiness of blockchain and tokens for a short period. But through these turbulent times, blockchain's utility as a transformative technology remained strong. The distributed ledger and blockchain industry kept low, on the lookout for a better mixture of technological benefits to bring new methods and value to legacy security offerings. The confluence of those two brought together innovative tokens in the form of a "security token."