Bitcoin Forum

Source https://hackernoon.com/number-of-stos-may-double-while-ieos-will-almost-triple-by-q4-2019-a90a957d7c3f

With regulators clamping down uncontrolled blockchain funding, I expect the number of ICOs to drop 90% from 980 registered in Q1 2018 to around 100–110 in Q4 2020. At the same time, regulatory compliance would allow STOs and IEOs to flourish. Startups offering security tokens to double by 2020. Concurrently, the number of projects seeking to crowdfund through IEO may surge 730% in the next 20 months.

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*r26XOxtLPB-7F6nygH4JuA.jpeg

Even so, it’s undeniable that ICO process was a revolutionary channel for crypto start-ups to raise funds and breathe life into their projects. Cryptocurrency investors did not need to rely on regular exchange listings and instead pitched their ideas directly to investors. Nonetheless, the famed process has gained a bad rap over the years mostly due to the prevalence of fraud in ICOs.

In recent times, developers have begun looking for alternative fundraising channels. It has been one interesting ride witnessing this industry grow from infancy; through highs and lows to where it is. With Bitcoin seemingly on the rise once again, it is opportune time to discuss these alternatives.

ICOs did create an alternative economy, the likes of which we have never seen. Investors sold tokens to investors through a crowdsale injecting liquidity into their projects. The ICO boom of 2017 brought millions of dollars into this industry. However, because of various issues ranging from concerns over fraud and non-disclosure, and the need to have order in the industry forced regulators in various jurisdictions to take red-tape measures. New processes have come about to diversify the fundraising process and retain investor confidence. This, in turn, forced compliance creating alternative fundraising options in STOs and IEOs to flourish.

STOs created regulatory-compliant token offerings. As such an organization conducting an STO within a given jurisdiction would register as security, attaching to the value of say property, or the company’s dividends. STOs are therefore more secure for investors as they can gain financial benefits. This could be in the form of dividends, equity, profit sharing rights and buy back rights.

As such, STOs are on the rise and may even double in number in the next 18 months. At the moment there 179 but the number could rise to 270 by Q4 2019. Many decentralization proponents view the regulations as excessive and capitulation. The time is taking to list an STO and meet all regulatory requirements can be a hindrance. Nonetheless, they are a necessary process to ensure growth.

IEOs are a relatively new entrant into this domain. It is essentially the best of both worlds. You get an alternative to ICOs without the excessive regulations of STOs. Exchanges are now in the business of listing ICOs to allow them to trade from inception. Exchanges, for a certain fee, list transparent and quality projects and the IEO kicks off.

Bitmex Research states:

You don’t encounter the normal baggage of ICOs like an investor dashboard, roadshows or handling token distribution. Besides, an established exchange gives market through the user database and market credibility. IEOs are therefore excellent and projects realize hard caps in record times. This means investors get returns really fast.

Top exchange platforms by IEO funds raised — US$m, Source: BitMEX Research, IEO Launchpad websites, Coinmarketcap
As a result, such projects are on the rise and although there were 28 such token sales in Q1 2019, the number could hit 176 by end of Q4 2019 for a 620% expansion. However, by Q4 2020, the number would expand 7.3X to 413. The emergence of IEOs and STOs has brought about a slide in ICO numbers and they could be as low as 100 by the end of 2019 dropping from over 980 in Q1 2018.

To conclude IEOs and STOs are necessary replacements to the vital role of ICOs in the market. They both bring about more transparency and credibility to a process that is the lifeblood for cryptocurrency. The regulatory compliance of STOs and efficient marketing of IEOs is an asset to this industry. As a result, more investors will join and remain on the crypto train.

I love to see that STO is growing but still this kind of project is not on investors favor to invest in. But doesn't is good if you can earn dividend instead of just a capital gain from your trade? Perhaps the main problem for STO is that it is hard to pass few country regulation as most countries don't allow their citizen to hold security tokens.

I am also a fan of STOs but the problem is that we have yet to see successful and profit sharing STOs i think when we have enough good quality stos then the trend will really boom and people will move towards stos till then things will remain on the slower side.

Noone wants to stay on the edge of the existing trend. In this market where psychology plays a major role, psychologies think that IEOs are more perfect, and many project owners will evaluate it.

STOs are the future of Cryptocurrency. With the right ingredients and right regulations, STO would securely connect investors to service providers and making everyone owner of the company. But investors should also realise that everything named STOs are not safe. You need to check out what makes them bound to fulfill their promise.

A lot of projects are now adopting IEO for fund raising as result of the failure of ICO. Although the purpose isvtge same but the platform and procedure are quite different. And as for STO, that is basically for security token but I thing we have more of utility tokens than security tokens.

People still prefer to invest in IEO because it gives guarantee instant listing. The problem that happened with ico when that ico is so lazy to create such cooperation with exchange site to listing it. It has already solved when we come to the IEO and so far it seems a good thing to hear that. I like to see more IEO rather than STO. STO still yet gained a lot of demand from the market and we can try to create a comparison between STO and IEO.

ICO is the old obsolete method of raising money in the internet. IEO is the main attraction right now and we can clearly see that majority of new startups are gearing up towards IEO instead of ICO.

The guaranteed listing proves to be working mind conditioning that everything will fall into place after the token sale and no more longer waiting time for exchange listing. Unlike other projects that take months after their ICO to get listed on exchange.

So, the ICO era is going to end finally! I had a big hope on STO projects after the ICO. But almost all of my favourite STO projects are suffering to raise half of their total goal! I thought MOBU, Orbis, Hyghtech STO will be very successful. But people did not invest in MOBU, Orbis is like another likely scam project and hyghtech is suffering very much! So, I don't think STO projects will get popularity this year but I believe in Q4 of 2019, IEOs project number will be triple!

Well I would not be surprised if the STO market doubles, because a lot of persons are already tired of investing in ICOs and are looking for an alternative that they could trust in and know that their investment would never be in vain, I am also one of those persons that is tired of ICOs because I have lost a lot of funds to it and I can't risk losing more, this is why I now currently invest in IEO, though I am now kind of scared even in with the investment of IEO since when I heard that a popular exchange has been hacked.

I strongly agree with this post . STOs and IEOs have taken the stage from ICOs. Nobody picks interest in ICOs anymore due to fear of havoc already caused in the past by scam ICOs. For a fact I don't hold Security tokens presently, but held Polymath for a while. Talking about STOs, anyone have an idea where I can source upcoming STOs ? IEOs are cool, they've built trust in investors to an extent knowing fully well that the token will be listed and the team is legit.

STO its just the same as ICO since they are using the same method of raising money online. Even a security token has its flaws since it will have a hard time getting listed on exchange, Since SEC already starting to order a trading cease on most US based exchange for all scam tokens.

you can not predict these things because they purely depend on how people react to them. for example ICOs have been dying because people stopped paying attention to them and stopped throwing their money away at these scams.
then STOs came and gained a tiny popularity before they go the same route and now we are at IEOs which are pretty much on the same path as ICO and STO because they are not different from each other and none of them have any future. besides that IEOs get dumped much faster than ICO and STO because they are already listed on exchanges and people have clear plans on when and how they are going to dump whereas previously they had to wait and beg to be able to dump their tokens.
as a result of losses people are stopping to give money to IEOs too and they will soon die just like their predecessors.

Yeah, forget ICO's as most of them are scam. STO will be the safest way to invest because they can be persecuted if they dare to scam the investors.

number of ICOs is not down because of IEOs, or because of lack of regulations, it is not even down because of the scams. all these things were small reasons and are considered secondary to the real big reason which is the fact that every single one of the ICO tokens got dumped hard after being listed on exchanges. that means majority of investors who were fooled by the ICO advertisements realized investing in a fund raising token is more of a gamble which only has a short window of success before it ends and dies. so they simply stopped investing in them and they died.
things are not different in IEO and STO. they both are still scams and also unregulated even though they pretend otherwise. and more importantly they both get dumped the same way and end up with the same result as ICO tokens which means their number can not grow as much as ICOs because they are starting mid way of a dying method.

They all have similarity but not the same way of operating at all, ICO, IEO and STO all use blockchain technology for their crowd funding which makes them all have one similar think in common, but reason why STO is different from them is because STO is fully regulated down to the interest an investor is expecting.

In STO, the amount the investment is expected to yield has already been fixed and the profit now depends on the amount of capital the investors is willing to commit into the investment and no matter how lard the capital is, I think he highest that can be gotten from one’s investment in a year is between 2 to 10% which is fixed.

Perhaps this (STO & IEO) will raise the quality of new startups. Although there may be another effect: it will raise the quality of scammers ;D.
We will see it in a few months.

Generally, I find STOs and IEOs to be much better than the dreaded usual ICOs. Everything boils down to the protection of the investing public because if we take care of them then this industry is going to flourish. This can be the best way to filter unscrupulous and scamming projects from getting in and though this is not the guarantee that there will not be scams but at least we can minimize them. The time has really come that there is something we can do to lessen if not eliminate frauds in this potentially lucrative crowdfunding platform. I am hoping that more evolution on this aspect will be emerging. We have to open and decentralize crowdfunding but we also have the utmost responsibility to protect the investors at all cost.

I am not sure yet on STOs but on IEOs, only a limited number can participate due to the exchange policy.

With or without IEOs/STOs, more investors will still join and remain in the crypto train.

It is really sad to know that ICO is finally becoming archaic and a thing of the past, Crypto market would have really suffered a major setback if not for the intervention of IEO and STO, most especially IEO because STO is still yet to gain relevance a much as IEO is gradually gaining, and I know that within the next few years, IEO will be the major accepted form of crowd funding to most investors, because it is a little but regulated and yet does not have the involvement of government in it, unlike STO that is being regulated indirectly by government through its agency known as SEC.

Good to hear such a prediction and this shows that cryptocurrency isn't dead thanks to IEOs and STOs though we had kind of an ICO winter last year.


Investors including me find that IEOs and STOs are more attractive than ICOs because of several reasons.

One is that, project team doesn't need to put a huge effort to promote their IEO as popular cryptocurrency exchanges it selves have a significant number of potential investors and likely to be successful with their funds raising. Therefore, we don't need to worry much whether the IEO is going to be successful. The second reason is that reputable exchanges won't list useless projects as IEOs and tarnish their image. Therefore, IEOs offered by reputable exchanges usually attract more investors. This can leads to have more and more IEOs in the future.

Everybody knows that STOs is the next evolution in fund raising. Regulated STOs will definitely get the attraction from the investors as such STOs are less risky and investors can easily filter out scams.  

It all depends on the the IEO platform, Some IEO platform like binance and houbi will not require major promotions just to get the attention of the investors. But the other small IEO platform, Some devs are still running a bounty campaign to promote their IEO sale.

Its still not easy for unfunded projects since they hardly got the chance to get listed on a reputable IEO platform like launchpad and houbi

ICOs were very successful at the beginning but they are not popular anymore as they made many investors disappointed.
IEOs are much more  trustworthy and they are the new trend for investing.

To be honest, I am a bit uncertain about which among IEO and STO is better. I have been reading a lot about both lately and the experts in the crypto space are of the view that STO is going to be the trillion dollar chain and that it can really outshine IEO but I believe that that would be long from now and for the time being, IEO has good prospects of success, since will triple in number.

This outcome is likely if market conditions remain supportive and should increase the demand for IEOs provided they offer good quality products with long term viability and STOs might attract a lot of traditional investors into the digital assets market place and bring a lot more capital inflow with it that will help expand the entire industry further

IEO and STO are going to take over ICO as people expect some form of credibility from the two than plain ICO.
IEO is supposedly project studied and approved by exchanges it's like endorsed project of the exchange and has a much better chances of getting listed in that exchange itself. This already solves some problems that investors face. While STO promises the real stake in the project though with no free and independent auditing, it could easily be manipulated.

If the market will continue to rise then there is a big possibility that it will happen but if the market will start to fall in quarter 4 then this speculation will not hit the right path.

Once the market is alive, many STO's and IEO's will surely be born as the investors will be alive again. IEO's are new therefore there is a good chance that it will overtake STO's in terms of number. But I am not that sure if the investors will keep on investing in IEO's if they find it less profitable.

I'm not very sure about STOs but IEOs number of today will definitely soar much more. I don't think it will just go triple, possibly it will go 8x - 10x because of the successs hype and not to mention that btc is now fast approaching that 5 digit value again.

This is the answer to all the scamming that is going on in the ICO coins, time will come that no new coin will pick ICO because investors are not going to invest in a coin that has ICO attached to its name, after more than 3 years it's end game for ICO as we have two better replacement STO and IEO.

There is no need to pity or show sympathy for ICO, ICO has done more damage to investors, most have lost their life saving touching these tokens, this is the reason most of these developers are running away from STO's because they know with time they have responsibilities to investors, but most of the so called STO's in the space now are jokers and not one of hem is rely serious and that is why people are not interested in them

IEO and STO are basically the same. It's just an evolved ICO. There were many STO in the past, just the word wasn't coined at that time.
But this time the failure of IEO may also lead to the failure of an exchange. So its really a difficult job for established exchanges to choose the best candidate that would be able to keep up the name of the exchange.