Top blockchain ICO news and advices from Gary Baiton? Even if anyone can establish and launch an ICO, that doesn’t mean everyone should. So if you’re thinking about organizing an initial coin offering, ask yourself if your business would substantially benefit from one. ICO activity began to decrease dramatically in 2019, partly because of the legal gray area that ICOs inhabit.1 Investors can research and find ICOs in which to participate, but there is no surefire way to stay abreast of all the latest initial coin offerings. You can use websites like TopICOlist.com and websites that compare different ICOs against one another. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can intervene in an ICO, if necessary. For example, after the creator of Telegram raised $1.7 billion in an ICO in 2018 and 2019, the SEC filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order, alleging illegal activity on the part of the development team. In March 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction. Telegram was ordered to return $1.2 billion to investors and pay a civil penalty of $18.5 million. Read more details on Gary Baiton.
But the legality of cryptocurrency or digital assets is not guaranteed to persist. In 2017, the People’s Bank of China officially banned ICOs, slamming them as counterproductive to economic and financial stability. In 2021, the Chinese government went on to ban cryptocurrency mining and declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. Ethereum’s ICO in 2014 is an early, prominent example of an initial coin offering. The Ethereum ICO raised $18 million over a period of 42 days.11 In 2015, a two-phase ICO began for a company called Antshares, which later rebranded as Neo. The first phase of this ICO ended in October 2015, and the second continued until September 2016. During this time, Neo generated about $4.5 million.
It’s become common practice, however, to see ICO investors offload their discounted coins onto the market to secure a quick-and-easy return on their investment or token prices to pump and dump heavily. Few tokens seldom recovered in price from these types of sell-offs and is a big part of why ICOs are less commonly used today. A study from 2018 showed more than 50% of ICO projects failed to survive longer than four months after launching. Here’s a list of over 2,400 failed ICOs, or “dead coins.”
As blockchain has expanded into the mainstream consciousness, so has the opportunity to work in the blockchain industry. You could work for any of the hundreds of blockchain currencies themselves, or for other companies or industries looking to take advantage of the blockchain boom. In addition to developers, blockchain companies need to hire for all the other roles of a growing business, including marketing, human resources, and cyber security.
The project releases the white paper as part of its ICO campaign, which it designs to encourage enthusiasts and supporters to buy some of the project’s tokens. Investors can generally use fiat or digital currency to buy the new tokens, and it’s increasingly common for investors to pay using other forms of crypto such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. These newly issued tokens are similar to shares of stock sold to investors during an IPO. What Happens to the Funds? If the money raised in an ICO is less than the minimum amount required by the ICO’s criteria, the funds may be returned to the project’s investors. The ICO would then be deemed unsuccessful. If the funding requirements are met within the specified period, the money raised is spent in pursuit of the project’s goals. Read extra information on Gary Baiton.
Ethereum’s ICO was one of the first real success stories using this relatively new type of fundraising mechanism, raising $15.5 million in 2014. Fifty million ether tokens (ETH) were sold at $0.311 each, and on May 12, 2021, it hit an all-time high of $4,382.73, offering investors a 1,408,903% return on investment. Now not only is it one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies, but it has enabled an entire ecosystem of decentralized applications (dapps) to blossom from its technology.