SHO (Strong Holder Offering)

A Strong Holder Offering (SHO) is a token sale model introduced in 2021 by DAO Maker, a launchpad for early-stage crypto projects. Like an initial decentralised offering, it lets members of the public buy a new project's tokens before they trade widely. Its distinguishing feature is how it decides who may buy. Participants usually need to stake or hold the launchpad's own token, places are allocated partly by lottery, and people who quickly sold tokens from earlier sales can be penalised or lose priority. The aim is to reward "strong holders" and reduce immediate dumping after listing, which often hits prices of newly launched tokens. Critics note that such schemes still favour those who can afford to lock up large amounts of the platform token, and that they do not change the high risks of early-stage public sales. Also see initial coin offering and tokenomics.