Headphones Maker Monster Is Quietly Planning A $300 Million ICO

Monster Products, Inc. has been losing money for years, but a $300 million initial coin offering may be what it takes to turn the company around.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Monster is planning to run one of the biggest ICOs of all time by selling "Monster money tokens" to build the "Monster Money Network," a new e-commerce site for selling its products online.

If it succeeds in raising its target amount, Monster will use the funds to make the Monster Money Network a platform for purchasing its products using ethereum tokens.

As part of the plan, Monster will create 500 million tokens and sell as many as 300 million in its offering.

The filing states that the Monster Money Network will be used for "For payment processing, market analysis, accounting, audit and payroll services, inventory management and shipping operation" relating to Monster products sold online.

"In the future, Monster intends to leverage its global connections and brand visibility along with blockchain technology to bring more and more other e-commerce platforms onto Monster Money Network and expand the user base of MMNY Tokens. We hope to set up the blockchain standard for e-commerce platforms."

More than half the funds are designated for technical development of the network, but roughly one-third is earmarked for marketing and developing relationships with partners who will sell Monster products.

In other words, it doesn't sound like the new tokens will ever be the only way to acquire Monster's headphones and cables, and it seems clear that the ICO is in no small part a strategy to give a multimillion-dollar boost to the product line's visibility.

There hasn't been an example of a non-blockchain company moving into decentralized software from a position of strength, and Monster appears to be no different.

"We consider Amazon, Ebay and Alibaba as examples of our main competitors with respect to the new Monster Money Network and our existing e-commerce platform."