Accredited Investor
A regulatory status (based on wealth or income) that gates access to certain private, higher-risk investments.
An accredited investor is someone who meets regulatory thresholds — typically income or net-worth minimums — qualifying them to invest in certain unregistered, higher-risk offerings that aren’t available to the general public. The rationale is that wealthier or more sophisticated investors can bear the risk and absorb losses.
In crypto, accreditation gates access to many early-stage token sales, certain security-token offerings, and private funds — a tension with crypto’s permissionless, egalitarian ideals. Critics argue it locks ordinary people out of early upside (reserving the best deals for the already-wealthy), while defenders note it protects the inexperienced from opaque, illiquid bets. It’s a recurring flashpoint in debates over who gets access to crypto’s earliest, highest-risk, highest-reward opportunities.