ICO Market Report 2017. Performance Analysis of Initial Coin Offerings (Presentation Slides)

Abstract

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are currently one of the most fashionable topics in the area of financial markets. For token issuers, they are a success story. By the end of 2018 nearly $ 30 billion dollars have been raised in ICOs. From the investors’ perspective, however, things do not look so shiny. Lots of them claim to have lost significant amounts of money invested in tokens issued by more or less reputable companies.

In this market report, we analyze the ICOs of 2017. We illustrate the ICO market of that year and scrutinize how prices of the issued tokens have developed until today. Thereby, we take the perspective of an investor that bought tokens initially from the issuer. We found that investors, which invested in ICOs during 2017, had, at first, a 50% chance that their tokens traded above their ICO issue price after six months. Yet, things have changed over time. By mid-December 2018, the vast majority of those tokens are in the red. 55% of tokens have lost substantially all their value. Nevertheless, it is our view that it would be too hasty to predict the end of ICOs from these numbers.

Keywords: Initial Coin Offering, ICO, Token, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Venture Capital, Crowdfunding, Ethereum, Coin

JEL Classification: G11, E22, M13, O16, G30, G31, K00, K22