ICOs have collected $7,4 billion in 2018, but don’t exult

Alex Stargame

Published in

Game of Life

5 min readApr 6, 2018

Since the beginning of 2018 Bitcoin price has halved. Following this, market capitalization has decreased to $263,9 billion. In comparison with it, the situation on the ICO market looks optimistic: in the first quarter of 2018 ICOs collected more than $7,4 billion.

But it is an illusion, everything is much worse.

The number of projects launching ICOs is record-breaking, too. 285 projects finished fundraising in the first three months of 2018 (not counting failed ICOs and those that collected less than 100 000 dollars).

In comparison, in 2017 ICOs were launched by 514 projects, and they managed to raise $6,8 billion investments.

Inspires hope, doesn`t it?

Actually, half of all ICO investments in 2018 are distributed between 10 projects. Thus, the lion`s share of investments has been attracted by the project of Telegram — TON ($1,7 billion), the Petro cryptocurrency backed by the national riches of Venezuela ($850 million), the DragonCoin project, offering a gambling solution in China ($320 million), and one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges of China Huobi ($300 million).

To give you a clear picture, I will talk about the concept of each project separately.

TON

I think nobody needs to explain what the TON cryptocurrency stands for. Even those who are not interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies have heard about this project. TON has everything going for it to become the most successful ICO project in history: the name, reputation, idea and realization. No wonder there were so many people wishing to get the project tokens during the first two presale stages that Durov had to enact restrictions for investors. I think no comments are needed here.

Petro

This token, too, does not require an explanation. Petro is the first national cryptocurrency in the world. For the last months the government of Venezuela has managed to attract $735 million. Considering that this cryptocurrency is backed by the national riches of the country (as claimed by the government of Maduro), the result does not seem so impressive. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency of Venezuela has collected a fifth part of all large ICO investments in 2018.

DragonCoin

The third most successful ICO is the project from China — DragonCoin. During their ICO they managed to raise 320 million dollars.

DragonCoin is aimed at solving a real problem in China, namely in Macao, where the largest casinos in the country are concentrated. The matter is that by the laws of China it is forbidden to import large sums of money and a large commission fee is charged for money transfers. The project offers a platform which allows to convert the DGC tokens into game chips, and then the prize back into the cryptocurrency.

Experts tell that a few large investors have put money in this project. It is not surprising, as the gambling business in Macao is considered one of the largest in the world.

Huobi

The token of one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges of China — Huobi — is in fourth place. The stock exchange announced the issuance of 500 million tokens and the beginning of the private sale without launching an ICO. The project has collected 300 million dollars since the beginning of 2018.

Bankera

The Bankera project represents the idea of creating a digital bank on blockchain which will render a wide spectrum of services to the clients, beginning from the usual deposits and crediting and finishing with new-generation investment products. The company already has a working product called SpectroCoin. The developers promise to start a digital bank in 2019 in case of a successful ICO. In 2018 Bankera has attracted 151,8 million dollars.

Envion

The company has developed an innovative system for mining farms called “Mobile Mining Unit” (MMU) which can consume energy directly on the energy sources in different places on the planet. Without going into the project details, it is possible to tell that the realization of this project will significantly simplify the lives of miners in all corners of the planet. Envion’s team has collected 100 million dollars via the ICO.

The other projects in the top 10 have managed to collect more than 50 million dollars.

To sum it all up

After analyzing the top most successful ICOs the following conclusions can be drawn:

The technology of blockchain finds recognition among large financial organizations and state structures
Large investments are made into projects which manage to get the support of big businesses and state structures
Most investments are attracted by projects in the spheres of finance, infrastructure and mining
More than half of all ICOs in 2018 have failed

I sense that the ICO becomes more and more like a usual procedure of fundraising. Due to the fact that large “normal” businesses enter the market of cryptocurrencies and ICO, the same laws as in the usual market of investments start to apply here. If earlier ICOs involved enthusiasts due to the absence of restrictions and harsh rules, the tendencies of the beginning of 2018 testify that the time of freedom is over and small projects have fewer chances to survive.

But it does not mean that small projects need to give up launching ICOs. The technology of blockchain comes to their rescue with all its defects and boundless possibilities for improvement and use in all spheres of life, including gambling (speaking of which — the FairWin platform will release its first slot game on blockchain “Yggdrasil” in April, 2018).

Only creating a real product can give a project a chance of survival in the new conditions of the cryptocurrency market.

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