On Monday October 8, research firm Autonomous Next published its latest monthly figures for the volume of funds raised through initial coin offerings (ICOs), the revolutionary mechanism for founders of new crypto companies exploring ways to exchange value and ownership of assets through tokens on blockchains to build their otherworldly visions into real businesses.
ICO funds raised by end-month ($ million) |
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| Source: Autonomous NEXT, Pitchbook Data, China Microlenders |
The peak month for ICOs was January this year, when new blockchain based companies raised $2.43 billion through this method, 10 times as much as through venture equity.
By this September, however, the ICO game looked like it had entered its final inning. Firms raised just $279 million, suggesting that since the peak “monthly ICO activity is down 90%, which of course looks a lot like Ether's price performance, but with a three-month lag,” according to the mordant analysts at Autonomous Next.
So, is all this crypto-currency nonsense nearly over?
Maybe not.
View full version of this article, published in the November issue of Euromoney magazine
If Euromoney had an actual dollar for every plan for a new stablecoin we have been told about in the past fortnight, we would be thinking of, well, maybe not retiring but certainly heading out for a very fine lunch.
