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If a contract for a erc20 token can not accept eth? Can the tokens blockchain "Value per Token" ever become greater than 0?

Suppose the contract to create the ecr20 token has nothing in place to sell tokens and does not have the ability to accept eth from anyone.

Can the Value per Token that shows up on etherscan.io ever become greater than 0?

If so what would cause the Value per Token (in eth) to change?

Edit: For clarification, also suppose that the tokens have some arbitrary purposefull use like paying for access to a server and they are sold individually for usd via paypal.

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I'm not 100% sure how Etherscan determines the "value per token," but I assume it comes from exchanges. If a token is being bought on an exchange, then I would expect the "value per token" to represent the price it's fetching on exchanges. (Perhaps the value comes from CoinMarketCap, which I believe aggregates multiple sources.)

I wouldn't expect it to have anything to do with whether or not the token can be directly sold for ether by the token contract. It's rare for a token contract to support this directly. (Selling a token for ether is more typically done by a separate contract.)

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  • Are you sure, i was under the impression for a token to be sold on an exchange there would have to be code inside the contract for the token to deposit tokens into senders accounts when they send eth, can someone please correct me or clarify?
    – Dave
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 19:46
  • My understanding is that an exchange is just that. It helps facilitate exchanges between people. If person A wants to buy a token from person B for ether, then A sends ether to B and B send a token to A. (The exchange typically acts as an intermediary for these exchanges.) For a direct sell, e.g. an ICO, it's typically a separate contract that is given the tokens and then distributes them to buyers.
    – user19510
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 19:48
  • Ok makes sense.
    – Dave
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 19:58
  • Can someone confirm if etherscan does use average values from transactions on the blockchain of eth per token to determine the value per token or how it sets this value?
    – Dave
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 20:01
  • It wouldn't be transactions on the blockchain that it uses. It would use prices provided by the exchanges. But yes, if anyone knows for sure where these values come from, that would be helpful. :-)
    – user19510
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 20:26
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Like any other cryptocurrency, Ethereum tokens have no intrinsic value. If you don't define a price, it will defined by the market (supply and demand).

In an ICO the price is defined by the company that hosts the event, after that, when the tokens go in circulation and enter exchanges the company doesn't have control over the token price.

Also, Etherscan shows the price of the most popular tokens using information gathered form http://coinmarketcap.com according to the Etherscan Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/etherscan/comments/72b5mb/erc20_token_listed_value_per_coin/.

In resume: if you sell your token at 100USD and there is people buying it, then its price is 100USD.

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