Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) became popular worldwide due to projects successfully able to raise funds through them. Take, for instance, the first ever cryptocurrency to raise funds through an ICO, Mastercoin, in July 2013. A year later, Vitalik Buterin and his team of researchers launched Ethereum through an ICO. They raised $2.3 million in the first 12 hours pre-sale. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry is tokenizing their projects to raise funds. While they use enticing promises to woo investors, there are lots of facts they forget to tell you. Yes, you will learn about them in this piece. Just keep reading!

5 Interesting ICO Facts

• 81% of ICOs are scams: Again, while it’s unfair to conclude that all ICOs are scams, studies suggest that 81% of them are scams. From BitConnect to Pincoin, it is a very long list as most ICOs you see today are scams. Yes, sooner rather than later, the issuers will vanish into thin air with investors’ deposits.
• 46% of ICOs launched in 2017 collapsed: Well, 46% of the ICOs launched in 2017 have crashed, according to newsblockchain.com. Indeed, these projects failed to deliver, dashing investors’ hopes.
• Early Initial Coin Offering investors are smiling to the bank: There’s a saying that early birds catch the worms, remember? Yes, it also applies to ICOs. Early ICO investors are not only making money, but reports suggest they are also making 50,000% of their return on ICO investments. Now, that’s shocking!
• Baltic States are leading in the ICO market: No, it’s neither South Korea, nor Switzerland. The countries dominating the ICO markets are Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. In 2017, these three countries raised over $398.1 million through ICOs. Successful startups such as Lympo, Monetha, Bankera and Digipulse are testaments to this fact.
• Over 10% of $3.5 billion raised through ICOs is not accounted for: Here’s another worrisome fact. An Ernst & Young analysis indicates that over 372 ICO projects it sampled, hackers stole $1.5 million of the funds raised every month. Consequently, issuers of these ICOs cannot account for over 10% of the funds raised through their ICO rounds. Coindash comes to mind at the mention of cyber incursion because the project lost ether worth over $7.9 million to hackers, compelling it to wind up.

Conclusion

At this juncture, you don’t need to be a genius to understand that most ICOs are scams. As you piece shares, ICOs remain the fastest way of making large sums of money. Make no mistakes about it: the more risk you take in life, the richer you become. Though, while taking such risks, make sure to do extensive research on the ICO. Good luck!