2017 was undoubtedly the year that cryptocurrencies went mainstream.
With the meteoric rise of bitcoin and Ethereum came the equally impressive emergence of the initial coin offering (ICO) as a new mechanism for tech startups to raise cash. Despite being initially slammed due to their potential for scams, ICOs weathered the storm; just $2m was raised via ICO in January 2017, compared to $1,217m in December 2017.
All in all, over $5.6bn was raised for blockchain-based startups via ICOs in 2017 against just $1bn of regular venture capital. That is not to say that raising capital in this way is easy: of the 913 ICOs last year, 48% failed to reach their minimum threshold and consequently returned funds to investors.
This information first appeared on The Market Mogul.
