ICOs are not dead, just maturing in a positive way.

[jeihjeih]

I wrote this before, and am writing it here now. I would really like to advocate for institutions and VC money entering this space. Let me know your comments.

The fervour and bullishness of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of 2017 is long forgotten, and markets are maturing to a steady state. Regulations are becoming clearer, and talks of the Security Token Offering (STO) become common place. Where has the ICO gone? Simply put, its still there. Just not so ‘public’ and often anymore. Indeed, the velocity of token sales done in recent months are declining exponentially.

Private and/or institutional sales

It is well-documented that most ICOs today are sold largely (up to 95%) to private placements, consisting of institutions and High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs). These private offerings are completed with generous discounts before release to the public (no discount), or at times listing straight to a crypto exchange thereafter.

Equity and/or hybrid token offerings

As more VCs venture into this space, more traditional instruments of financing are being promoted- be it equity, convertible loans or token buy-back agreements. These instruments are important to ICO progress in two ways:

1. They bring about security to investments by holding the issuer/start-up accountable to the ICO.
2. They allow institutional investors a channel to buy into ICOs. Without which, most VCs do not have the authority or mandate to buy tokens.

The future of ICOs

Due to predominantly private, VC-driven ICOs, it is easy to mistake that the democratised, token-based ecosystem is regressing, or worse, ceasing to exist. ICOs today seem to model traditional fund-raising routes (which kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?).

However, it is useful to consider that blockchain start-ups and projects are not at all like other start-ups due to the existence of a secondary market (crypto-exchanges)— a very large one in fact. This means that most projects will still have their cryptocurrencies distributed over a larger pool of users/customers/investors.

As the crypto industry and regulatory environment continues to evolve rapidly, the idea of more compliant, accountable and funded ICOs cannot be bad.

[FirstCryptic]

I am sure that the future of ICO is seen as bright and distant. I believe that the use of ICO is a great discovery of the present time for the implementation of projects useful for the development of mankind.

[Nivelir]

I want to believe in it, but we definitely need to understand what to do and how to do it, because today it is very important for every investor to understand how to invest properly so as not to get into scam projects.

[Teraboy]

I wrote this before, and am writing it here now. I would really like to advocate for institutions and VC money entering this space. Let me know your comments.

The fervour and bullishness of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of 2017 is long forgotten, and markets are maturing to a steady state. Regulations are becoming clearer, and talks of the Security Token Offering (STO) become common place. Where has the ICO gone? Simply put, its still there. Just not so ‘public’ and often anymore. Indeed, the velocity of token sales done in recent months are declining exponentially.

Private and/or institutional sales

It is well-documented that most ICOs today are sold largely (up to 95%) to private placements, consisting of institutions and High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs). These private offerings are completed with generous discounts before release to the public (no discount), or at times listing straight to a crypto exchange thereafter.

Equity and/or hybrid token offerings

As more VCs venture into this space, more traditional instruments of financing are being promoted- be it equity, convertible loans or token buy-back agreements. These instruments are important to ICO progress in two ways:

1. They bring about security to investments by holding the issuer/start-up accountable to the ICO.
2. They allow institutional investors a channel to buy into ICOs. Without which, most VCs do not have the authority or mandate to buy tokens.

The future of ICOs

Due to predominantly private, VC-driven ICOs, it is easy to mistake that the democratised, token-based ecosystem is regressing, or worse, ceasing to exist. ICOs today seem to model traditional fund-raising routes (which kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?).

However, it is useful to consider that blockchain start-ups and projects are not at all like other start-ups due to the existence of a secondary market (crypto-exchanges)— a very large one in fact. This means that most projects will still have their cryptocurrencies distributed over a larger pool of users/customers/investors.

As the crypto industry and regulatory environment continues to evolve rapidly, the idea of more compliant, accountable and funded ICOs cannot be bad.

It needs the more time for ico to evolve, ico still get a lot of demand but remember the market was giving a lot of domination to the interest to participate in the ico too. It's not dead but it needs more improvements especially we know that it needs to be stricted. A lot of countries are thinking about the potential of ico right now.

[jacafbiz]

I agree with you that the market is changing and maturing but my fear now is for retail investors, it would be difficult to get into ICOs directly into good project, what I think they would adopt would be the Cadano style of ICO, where the VCs would buy it cheap and list it on exchanges and you would be able to buy from there

[clarkt]

The fact here is that,  ICO funding is unique,  cheap and open to all!  We need this type of funding to continue,  grow and develop so that we can birth idea that are beneficial to humanity into service and product. 

[Wind_Crypto]

very good points...but the ico space is still cluttered with a lot of insincere projects, hopefully the weak teams will be phased out by next year...

[Ruben Ramsey]

ICO's do have potential and will take time to for it to come to a stable position. All these issues regarding ICO's happen because of scam projects and people falling for them. What we need to do is, understand what to do and how to do it. Nowadays it is very important for investors to understand how to invest properly in order to not fall for scams and pave the way for a brighter future for ICO's.

[Kryten12]

ICO method of funding is not dead it has just faced very tough conditions in the 2018 Bear market that has made the operation far less viable than most companies would need. When we clear the current Bear market and return to a Bull phase I think we will see ICO flourishing once more.

[Spaffin]

ICO method of funding is not dead it has just faced very tough conditions in the 2018 Bear market that has made the operation far less viable than most companies would need. When we clear the current Bear market and return to a Bull phase I think we will see ICO flourishing once more.

Of course, the ICO did not die. For them, difficult times have come, but they froze, waiting for suitable conditions for manifestation. Moreover, as long as I do not observe a special decline in their number. However, there are really problems in the operating ICOs, they hardly raise funds, investors are very inert now. Now a lot of fraudulent projects and all these problems curled up in one tangle. We cannot do without state regulation of ICO activities. It is necessary that government agencies filter out fraudulent ICO projects. Then investors will be happy to invest their money in these projects.

[BitFinnese]

Well, definitely ICO's are not dead, they just evolved into something else, it sometimes changes its name but in the root purpose of it is to collect money from interested investors.  I also believe that this kind of crowdfunding will never die simply because it gives a lot of advantage to the project owner, getting money out of their brilliant ideas (though not all of them actually), with minimal costs.

[giogio0504]

Totally agree, I think that ICOs will not be dad and besides, they will help to develop crypto market. So we should support good projects and ideas. There is one rating platform www.icoguide.com which have not paid rates, and I would like also to support this page, as the pages like this will help investors to make good decisions.

[sarfield]

The ICO is indeed still running and many will be able to realize the project, with a reduction in the scam, the project is certainly good and has the potential to run well and continue. Many ICOs will be able to develop their projects and can be realized with their goals.

[simak84]

The ICO will have a normal future. We just have to wait a little. Now almost all the projects in which I have participated are not in a hurry to carry out ICO.
They say that now it is not the best time for this. But I think everything will change for the better by the end of the year.
Sincerely yours.

[Vanderbleek]

ICOs will never die. It is happening due to the lack of investors and the falling market. People do not want to risk their funds, because almost no ICO is profitable in short term. But in the long term, you can still buy some very perspective tokens for the low price.

[Piskeante]

NO ESTABA MUERTO, ESTABA DE PARRANDA.

jajajajajajajjaa

stupids.... 80% of ICOS failed, and something between 70 to 80% are scamm. But hey, continue pumping your money there and GET REKT!!!

[Esterklu]

Personally, I like what happened to the ICO in recent times, really just some of the projects survive, but it's not so interesting for scammers to start their projects, because they are more likely to fail. It is clearing this environment. ICOs are not dead.

[Indamuck]

It's very foolish to declare ICOs to be dead.  The crypto hype has gone down a bit but there will always be innovative ideas and new technology that needs funding.  I'm sure there are smart investors doing countless hours of research on new ICOs while most of the crypto investors are whining about the current prices.

[Dexter Mills]

Yup, for the recent downfall of the coins, the mass is suspecting that this might be the end of ico. But it isn't, if its just leaping towards the future by making a stable position day by day. Also, mere comment won't change anyone's perception, so let all just wait and see.

[Albert Hays]

ICOs still have a lot of demands in the market. It would be great to see ICO fully evolved and improved. I would like to see more public placements instead of 95% private offerings.