ACTIVIST VC BLOG

A Quick ICO Update
May 28, 2018In Febuary, I wrote about the boom in ICO (Initial Coin Offering) Activity and concluded that ICOs still have some significant teething problems.
It turns out I was neither entirely wrong nor quite alone in questioning the phenomenon.
The Wall Street Journal reported recently that it found 271 cryptocurrencies (out of 1450 reviewed) that had evidence of fraudulent activity. Nearly one out of every five currencies the Journal investigated utilized fake executive information, plagiarized documents, fabricated development team credentials, or other misleading information in an attempt to raise money from unsuspecting investors.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has completed an ICO of a satirical cryptocurrency called HoweyCoin as part of an effort to warn investors about the dangers of investing in cryptos. The HoweyCoin website was set up to demonstrate to investors how easy it is to get duped into the many scam currencies that have popped up in recent months, and the site links to an educational page about how to avoid crypto scams.
Despite the warning signs, the overall ICO hype seems to be more and more feverish. During Q1 of 2018, more money was raised in ICOs than in all previous ICOs put together. The ICO volume in this quarter alone was more than $14 Billion, making the entire record year 2017 with $9 Billion raised seem rather paltry.
Token sale volume is exploding (Source: Elementus.io)
You can see an excellent animation and more data about the ICO developments at the Elementus.io site.
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