It has been a rather remarkable few years for cryptocurrencies. With the launch of ICO tokens, the industry has taken an important, albeit worrisome step. Despite the global crackdown on initial coin offerings, it seems the industry is still in a good place. With over $23 billion having been raised to date, it is evident there is still a lot of potential on the horizon.
The Evolution of Token Sales
Although it is evident there is a lot of positive momentum in the ICO industry as of right now, regulators are also actively cracking down on this particular business model. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as the hype and speculation associated with these digital tokens need to be weeded out pretty quickly. Additionally, any company or team issuing securities without regulatory approval remains a systemic risk first and foremost.
New research by Elementus paints a very interesting future for token sales. With over $23 billion in sales to date, it is safe to say the token industry has generated a global buzz. Although this includes some massive projects such as Telegram’s private sale and the creation of Venezuela’s Petro, the business model has a lot of merit, for obvious reasons.
During the first three months of 2018, the cryptocurrency industry saw its fair share of setbacks. Although that was only to be expected after such a crazy run throughout late 2017, one would have expected this to affect token sales as well. That’s not been the case, as $14.2 billion was raised through token sales in Q1 of this year. Compared to $9 billion throughout all of 2017, the demand for such tokens has not dropped by any means.
One reason for this increase in token sale revenue is the mounting number of token sales in general. Whereas December 2017 was a terrible month for token sales – relatively speaking – things picked up again in March 2018. This further confirms that the ongoing regulatory battle isn’t dissuading people from using the token sale model, although that situation may come to change.
Another unsurprising development in the token sale industry is that the bigger token sales are simply getting bigger. More specifically, Telegram raised $1.7 billion, and the Petro generated a total of $5 billion in short order. Even EOS, a crowdsale which has been going on for almost a year now, has seen over $2.5 billion raised. Although many people still question the necessity of a year-long initial coin offering, it seems to be well-appreciated by the masses as of right now.
Looking at the list of countries ranked by fundraising numbers, things are a bit different from what enthusiasts might expect. The US and Venezuela are currently #1 and #2, although in the case of Venezuela, it’s primarily due to the Petro. China is still important, though far less so than Switzerland and Singapore. It is a pretty interesting world we live in; that much is rather evident.
