What Was Bananacoin (BCO)?
Bananacoin (BCO) was an Ethereum token offered for sale via an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The project was led by a team of Russian entrepreneurs who wanted to raise funds to expand an environmentally friendly plantation in Vientiane province, Laos. The developers set out to use the capabilities of a blockchain to raise funds for their project and as a tool for providing transparent payments to its investors in the future.
The coin was available in an initial coin offering (ICO) from Nov. 29, 2017, to Feb. 28, 2018. In the ICO, the price of each Bananacoin was set at $0.50. A pre-sale period offered the first one million tokens for sale at a 50% discount.12 The design was for the coin to be pegged to the export price of bananas to China from Laos, which the team expected to rise and generate returns for coin holders when they redeemed or traded them.
Upon completion, the project's designers planned to allow coin holders to exchange the token for an equal amount of bananas or funds. The project appeared to be abandoned sometime in 2018.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Bananacoin (BCO) was an Ethereum token sold to raise funds for a banana plantation project in Laos.
The coin was conceived to expand cultivation capacity and facilitate exports of Lady Finger bananas to China.
The project ended after raising $4.7 million, with unpublished project results and rumors of redeeming tokens using a prepaid card.
Understanding Bananacoin (BCO)
The project's backers believed they could tap into the growing Chinese demand for bananas. They pointed to figures indicating that Laotian banana exports were shifting from Thailand to China and argued that China lacked suitable arable land for banana cultivation. To take advantage of this shift in demand, the Bananacoin project would cultivate Lady Finger bananas and export them to China.
To this end, the Bananacoin project intended to expand cultivation from 100 hectares to 360 hectares and eventually to 1,000 hectares. It believed product sales would grow by 360%, which project backers claimed would double the value of Bananacoin within 18 months.
Bananacoin Project Goals
The Bananacoin project intended to sell 14 million tokens and raise more than $7 million, although only 6.8 million tokens were ultimately issued. It also was attempting to expand its banana production to increase revenues over a period of 18 months. The project ended on Feb. 28, 2018, after raising $4.7 million.2
Based on available information, it is unclear how successful the Bananacoin project was, as it failed to meet its fundraising goals, and the coin is no longer listed or traded. The project claimed to be in the process of redeeming tokens (for funds or bananas) to investors, but the website has been taken down, with only a video published about redeeming tokens using a prepaid card.5
Criticisms of the Project
Critics of Bananacoin focused on the token sale's general terms and conditions. For example, investors could not make "...any claim of any nature whatsoever against Bananacoin for any failure to carry out its obligations...as a result of causes beyond its control..." The document also stated that Bananacoin could terminate or suspend terms with an investor without prior notice.6
Other critics noted that while the project's white paper claimed that tokens could be exchanged for goods or equivalent monetary compensation, the backers failed to elaborate on how redemptions would be handled or make provisions for audits. It's also worth pointing out that many investors were not likely to want large quantities of highly perishable bananas when they redeemed their tokens.
The project may have been too optimistic about investor interest and cryptocurrency prices. Additionally, the developers appeared to rely on advertising that their plantation was environmentally friendly but provided no evidence that it was.
What Is Bananacoin Worth?
The project Bananacoin (BCO), the first token using that name, ended in February 2018 and disappeared by December 2018.
What Does Bananacoin Do?
Bananacoin was an attempt to issue a token to raise funding for a supposed banana plantation project.
Where Can I Buy Banana Crypto?
There have been several banana-themed tokens. The few remaining ones can be purchased on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap.
The Bottom Line
Bananacoin was an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 for a banana plantation project in Laos. The ICO ended in 2018, and the project failed to meet its fundraising goals and was eventually abandoned.
The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes online. Read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info.
Trade around the clock
Did you know that 82% of Nvidia’s gains between March 2024 and February 2025 happened outside of regular Nasdaq hours?* Pepperstone offers CFDs on 100+ US shares 24 hours a day, meaning you never need to miss out when the markets move. Join now for super-fast execution backed by dedicated support. 74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money *Data from the Pepperstone platform.
