The ICO Market Is Gaining Strong Momentum Shows PwC Report
One of the Big Four auditing giants of the globe - Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) has released their research report of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) taken place during the first five months of 2018. The report highlights some surprising details that at the time when the cryptocurrency market was witnessing a severe meltdown, The ICO market was actually heated up with over 530 ICOs conducted during that time raising over a staggering $13.5 billion.
Daniel Diemers, the head of Blockchain EMEA at PwC Strategy, has worked on this report along with four researchers based in Zurich, New York, and Hong Kong. The report titled “Initial Coin Offerings: a Strategic Perspective” reads: “[Researchers] highlighted continued growth and popularity of ICOs globally in 2018, with over 537 ICOs conducted in the first five months of this year, raising a combined total of $13.7 billion USD – more than all ICOs which took place before 2018 combined. Going forward this quarterly report on global ICO activity will continue to track the changes and developments in the industry as it undergoes continuous expansion and substantive change.”
The report also mentions that majority of the investments in the ICOs have been made by crypto whales holding huge quantities of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). It is assumed that this was basically shift of investment as both BTC and ETH have been performing poorly since the beginning of 2018. Moreover, with the growing regulatory scrutiny in ICOs, a majority of them require investors to buy tokens only in exchange for BTC or ETH.
This shows that there has been a huge fund circulation taking place in the crypto market contrary to the predictions by several analysts regarding new money being poured in the crypto market. However, another report published by Fortune this February that nearly half of the ICOs initiated in 2017 have failed to meet its conclusion and eventually died. The report states that in entire 2017, 46 percent ICOs failed.
Diemers says that since the last year, the ICO market has matured and improved a lot. He believes that with the improving legal aspects and investor relations in the ICO market, the failure rates will keep reducing in the coming months.
He said: “After all the hype of 2017, this year has seen the ICO sector becoming more mature and established, with an improved focus on best business and legal practice, investor relations and fundraising. Hybrid models of combined Venture Capital and ICO financing are increasingly bringing together the best of what both have to offer, so that the soundness of a business is validated while it realizes its market potential by receiving crowd support.”