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1ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
ICO Market ResearchQ3 2018
The Rating Agency for the ICO Market
Primary Contact:Anastasia BlakeChief Business Development Officerbizdev@icorating.com icorating icorating ico_rating
2ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
About the CompanyICORating is the global market leader for independent, non-affiliated analytical research on ICO projects, conducting detailed evaluations and assigning them investment ratings.
$2B+collective AUM of the crypto funds
500reviewed or rated projects
80+crypto funds
50+in-house analysts
Our main aim is to create transparency in the market, and to provide investors with the tools they need to make informed, evidence-based decisions in order to bridge capital and transparent ICOs.
Our team members have an average of 6 years’ experience with companies including hedge funds, large investment banks, major consulting groups, and venture funds. Two years of ICO market analysis, combined with this diverse set of skills and experience, has enabled us to develop a unique multidisciplinary approach. We have evaluated over 500 ICO projects for both private and institutional clients since we started doing business in September 2016.
Over 80 crypto-focused funds regularly receive our weekly newsletter featuring ICO projects that we have analyzed. These funds rely on our analyses to decide which ICO projects are worthy of being passed on to their in-house analysts for a closer look. Our detailed, unbiased reports evaluate ICO-project technical elements, business models, and tokenomics, teams, and other critical factors.
3ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
Welcome MessageQ3 2018 was not as successful as Q2 and Q1 of 2018 for ICOs. Regardless of the high risks inherent in ICO investing, many fraudulent projects and an overall bearish trend in the market, investments continued. In Q3 2018 we can see several interconnected ICO trends which we expect to continue and develop. These are:
• Overall disappointment in traditional ICOs
• Security token offerings
• Development of regulation
• A fall in the value of strongly-hyped and highly backed projects of 2017 and early 2018.
The market in Q3 shows signs of overall disappointment in traditional ICOs as a means of venture financing. This has multiple reasons behind it – a significant drop in returns for ICO participants, an increasing lack of transparency from ICO teams/projects, an overall market
downtrend, the fact that investors became more experienced and prudent in their decisions, regulation activities, a lack of new ideas from project teams and not-so-fast pace of actual blockchain implementation in the traditional market.
The key problem with ICOs is that a vast number of them are scams or scam-like projects, and the fact that some tokens sold were actually securities, meaning that they violate U.S securities law, forcing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take action. In July 2017 the SEC published a report stating that most, if not all tokens should be classified as securities, and thus are subject to the relevant regulation. Their later actions commencing in February 2018 and continuing in Q2 and Q3 led to an increase in interest in security token offerings (STOs).
4ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Welcome MessageSTOs provide a smarter way of investing and raising finance as compared to traditional ICOs because they address issues of lack of transparency, unknown territory for regulation and a lack of regulation itself. In addition to this, STOs in theory may provide projects access to a significantly larger number of potential investors due to implied regulation. While STOs currently have a tiny share in the crypto market, we expect that this will be a quickly growing segment in Q4 2018-2019 and onwards.
Apart from the above, due to unsatisfactory market performance and stricter regulation, combined with the fact that many projects between 2017 and early 2018 have major technical milestones in the upcoming months of 2018 and 2019, we expect some strongly hyped projects which raised significant funding to actually fail for a variety of reasons – due to being compromised as scams, to conflicts between founders, failure to deliver the promised technology or a failure of solutions offered to be widely adopted.
Sasha Kamshilov, Chief Executive Officer
5ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
ICO market review
Tokens and products
Industry review of ICO campaigns
ICO geography
Post-ICO performance
Token sale structure
Private Token Sale and Blockchain VC
12 — 18
19 — 27
28 — 35
36 — 41
42 — 45
46 — 57
58 — 69
Table of Contents
6ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Review of Q3
is the total funding amount raised by 597 projects over the quarter, compared to the $8,359,976,282 collected in the 2nd quarter of 2018
announced in Q3 2018 were not able to raise more than 100,000 USD. Only 4% of all announced ICOs were listed on exchanges.
$1,819,585,090
57% of ICO projects
In the quarter from July to September alone, the fall in funding raised via ICOs was 48%. Funding raised in September fell by more than 78% compared with May.
The fall was 48%
7ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
Review of Q3
Compared to Q2, the number of projects offering service tokens increased by 6.55%. The number of projects with utility tokens decreased by 10.07%.
76.15% of all the projects in Q3 had nothing but an idea before launching an ICO. Compared with Q2, the number of projects aiming to attract funds at the idea stage increased by 18.72%.
Following Q2 and Q3 trends, the most popular industry with the largest number of projects was financial services.
Service +6.55%, Utility −10.07%
76.15% of projects had nothing but an idea
Financial services are the most popular
8ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
Review of Q3
According to results from the 3rd quarter of 2018, the median return from tokens after three days of being listed is 3.35%. 79% of tokens were traded below the ICO price.
In the second quarter of 2018, the majority of projects were based in Europe, which was the origin for 43% of all projects.
According to results from the 3rd quarter of 2018, the median return from tokens was –22%.
Europe
The median return −22%
About 87% of projects staged their ICOs with the intention of creating a Dapp on a third-party blockchain. 67% of all Dapps ICOs were not successful.
67% of all Dapps ICOs were not successful
10ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Main Figures for ICOs
254 24of them raised more
than $100,000ICOs were staged in Q3 2018
597were able to be
listed on exchanges
It took 18 days on average from the completion of an ICO to the vesting of tokens for secondary trading.
57% of ICO projects announced in Q3 2018 were not able to raise more than 100,000 USD. Only 4% of all announced ICOs were listed on exchanges (in Q2, only 7% of completed ICOs were able to be listed on exchanges).
It is worth mentioning that 19% of projects with previously announced ICOs have already deleted their social network accounts and websites this quarter (9% in 2Q 2018). In total, these projects attracted $62,193,795 for the quarter (3% of total funds raised for the quarter).
11ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
Jun Jul Aug SepMayAprMarFebJan
$1 B
$0.5 B
$2 B
$1.5 B
50
100
150
↑Total funding
for projects
↑Successfullycompleted projects
In the quarter from July to September alone, the fall in funding raised via ICOs was 48%. Funding raised in September fell by more than 78% compared with May.
Number of Successful Projects and Their FundingThe graph shows the relationship of total project funding during ICOs by month to the number of successful* projects by month. The left axis indicates the total funding for projects for the period (month); the right axis indicates the number of successful projects for the period.
*A project is considered successful if its soft cap was reached, or the project raised more than $500,000 if there was no soft cap.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
12ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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$50—100 M
$25—50 M
$10—25 M
$5—10 M
$1—5 M
$0.5—1 M
$0—0.5 M
400200 3001000Numberof projects →
Funds raised↓
Projects that collected less than $0.5 million attracted a total of $6,689,924.
64% of all ICOs failed to complete their crowdfunding. In Q3, projects fell mostly into two groups by amount raised: $1-5 million (13%) or $10-25 million (9%).
Overall ICO Funding AmountThe graph shows the distribution of ICO campaigns by the amount of funds raised.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
13ICO Market Research Q3 2018
icorating.com
GOToken
NEX
Tutellus
FLOGmall
Usechain
Liquidity.Network
Atlantis Blue Digital
BitForex
The Deal Coin ICO
TravelBlock
Essentia
GRAPEVINE WORLD
Origo Network
Synco
GENEXI
Sparkster
4NEW
Alchemy
Cryptosolartech
London Football Exchange
70 M20 M 40 M 60 M0Raised funds →
Project↓
The average amount of funding attracted by the top Q3 ICO projects is 33 million USD.
Top 20 ICO Campaigns with The Largest Amount of Funds
The chart shows the amount of investment attracted by the top 20 ICO campaigns for Q3 of 2018.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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0Funds raised →
Project ↓
$1 B $2 B $3 B $4 B
London Football Exchange
Flashmoni
Envion
PumaPay
Orbs
Bankera
Huobi
Tatatu
Telegram
EOS
10 Largest ICOs in Terms of Funds Raised, Q1-Q3 2018The projects shown in this chart raised more than 70 million USD over Q1-Q3 2018. Two of them (EOS and Telegram) are ICO unicorns.*
*Projects that have raised over 1 billion US dollars.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
15ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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$60 M
$40 M
$20 M
0
$80 M
110250 50 75 100
Tutellus
GOToken
GENEXI
LondonFootball Exchange
Cryptosolartech
Alchemy
Atlantis Blue DigitalGRAPEVINE WORLD
TravelBlock
The Deal Coin ICOLiquidity.Network
Sparkster
Synco
EssentiaNEX
Origo Network
Usechain
BitForex
4NEW
FLOGmall
ICO duration in days →
Raised funds↓
41 days period
Amounts and Rates of Funding for ICO CampaignsThe graph shows the relation between funds raised during ICOs, and the duration of campaigns for the top 20 ICOs by the amount of funds raised. The Y-axis indicates ICO funding in USD, and the X-axis indicates the ICO duration in days.
Only one project, Usechain, managed to attract all its funding in the course of one day. The average fundraising period was 41 days.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
17ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Having analyzed statistics from the ICO campaigns, we determined:
What value and meaning organizers give to the tokens they aim to sell.
The stage of development of the products offered to the market. How many projects are planning to tokenize an existing business.
Tokens and Products
A
B
C
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Tokens and Products
Vote token Tokens which confer on their holders a right to vote and the ability to influence project development.
In Q3 of 2018, ICO organizers offered the following types of crypto assets for sale
Security tokens Tokens secured by an obligation (here we include promises of dividend payment, receipt of company shares, credit tokens).
Cryptocurrency New cryptocurrency (without additional exceptional properties).
Reward token Used to reward the contributions of participants to the network.
Service token A token used as the internal currency to pay for project services (can be replaced, for example, with ETH without damage to the product; this is evident when analyzing a project).
Hybrid token Payment for services + bonuses for work performed.
Utility tokens being tokens of the protocol itself (there is a real need for tokens being sold).
Tokens and Products
19ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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6.54%Security token
4.3%Cryptocurrency
1.55%Reward token
0.52%Vote token
49.05%Service token
25.3%Utility token
12.47%Hybridtoken
Token Types Found in ICO Projects The graph shows the distribution of projects staging ICOs depending on the type of the project’s token.
Compared to Q2, the number of projects offering service tokens increased by 6.55%. The share of projects offering security tokens increased by 1.66%. The number of projects with utility tokens decreased by 10.07%.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
20ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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0Median raised →
Token type↓
Cryptocurrency
Security token
Service token
Vote token
Utility token
Hybrid token
Reward token
$0.5 M $1 M $1.5 M $1.75 M
Median of Funds Raised During ICOs by Token TypeThe graph shows the distribution of the mean of funds raised during ICOs depending on the project’s token type.
Projects offering utility, hybrid and reward tokens were the leaders in terms of median raised funds. The lowest median amount of funds was raised by projects that offered new cryptocurrencies.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
21ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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0 100 150 200Number of successful projects →Number of unsuccessful projects →
Cryptocurrency
Hybrid token
Reward token
Security token
Service token
Utility token
Vote token
Tokentype
↓
Number of Unsuccessful ICOs by Token TypeThe graph shows the distribution of the number of unsuccessful* projects depending on the project’s token type.
Similarly to Q2, projects that offered service tokens were among the least successful projects in this category. There were also a large number of unsuccessful ICOs among projects offering utility and security tokens.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*A project is considered unsuccessful if the project raised less than $0.5 million.
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1.7%code
1.37%fully-ready product
4.77%alpha
5.79%beta
76.15%idea
10.22%mvp
Development Stages for ICO Projects The graph shows the distribution of projects staging an ICO by the development stage* of their product at the start of their ICO.
Compared with Q2, the number of projects aiming to attract funds at the idea stage increased by 18.72%. The number of projects with an already-operating business comprised 5% of all projects (−10% compared with Q2). The presence or absence of an operating business had no effect on fundraising success.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*defined by the project’s team
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0Median raised→
Developmentstage
↓
Idea
Fully-ready product
Code
Alpha
MVP
Beta
$0.5 M $1 M $1.5 M
Median of ICO Funds Raised by Development StageThe graph shows the distribution of the mean of funds raised during ICOs, depending on the development stage of products of different projects.
The median amount of funding raised among projects staging an ICO with an idea alone is 0.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
24ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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1000 200 300Number of successful projects, →Number of unsuccessful projects →
Developmentstage
↓
alpha
beta
code
fully-ready product
idea
MVP
Number of Unsuccessful ICOs by Development StageThe graph shows the number of distribution of unsuccessful* projects depending on the development stage of the project’s product.
The highest percentage of unsuccessful ICOs in terms of product readiness was comprised of projects at the idea stage. 72% of such projects failed to raise more than half a million dollars.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*A project is considered unsuccessful if the project raised less than $0.5 million.
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0Median HardCap →
Industry ↓
$10 M $20 M $30 M $40 M $50 M
Banking & Payments
Real Estate
Exchanges & Wallets
Art & Music
Computing & Data Storage
Sports
Internet & Telecommunications
Investment
Social Media & Communications
Business Services & Consulting
Media
Environmental Services
IT
Drugs & Healthcare
Mining
Financial Services
Blockchain Infrastructure
Legal Services
Real Assets
Energy & Utilities
Top 20 Project Industries by the Median Hard CapThe graph indicates the 20 industries with the largest median hard cap. The X-axis indicates the median declared amount of funds for the implementation of projects from particular industries.
Over the past quarter, projects have undergone a radical change in terms of a declared hard cap. It is worth mentioning that projects from the energy and utilities sector and the legal industry had the highest declared hard caps. In general, there is no stable correlation between type of industry and the amount of funding declared at crowdsales.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
27ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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0Number
of projects→
Industry↓
20 40 60
Business services & consulting
Mining
Gambling & betting
Investment
Banking & payments
Commerce & retail
Blockchain infrastructure
Drugs & healthcare
Trading
Financial services
Exchanges & wallets
Top 10 Most Popular IndustriesThe graph shows the top 10 industries by the number of projects belonging to these industries. The X-axis indicates the number of projects, and the Y-axis indicates the industry names.
Following Q2 and Q3 trends, the most popular industry with the largest number of projects was financial services.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
28ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Jul
0
15
Commerce& Retail
Financial Services0
25
15
Exchanges& Wallets0
20
10
Aug Sep
05
Gaming & betting
05 Business services
& consulting
0
10Blockchaininfrastructure
05 Recruitment
& crowdsourcing
0
10Drugs& healthcare
0
15
Trading
0
15
Banking& payments
Numberof projects
↓
Industries↓
Jul Aug Sep
Top 5 Most Popular Industries by MonthThe graph shows the change dynamics in the top 5 industries by the number of projects that belong to these industries. The Y-axis indicates the number of projects, and the X-axis indicates the month.
The exchanges and wallets industry is consistently popular throughout the whole quarter. It is quite unusual to see projects from the drugs and healthcare industry on the list, as this industry has not previously been particularly popular.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
29ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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0Raised Funds→
Industries↓
$80 M $90 M $100 M $110 M $120 M $130 M
Business Services & Consulting
Computing & Data Storage
Trading
Investment
Social Media & Communications
Drugs & Healthcare
Internet & Telecommunications
Banking & Payments
Blockchain Infrastructure
Financial Services
Top 10 Industries by Funds RaisedThe graph shows the top 10 industries by amount raised. The X-axis indicates the number of projects, and the Y-axis indicates industry type.
The most popular industries in terms of total funds attracted in Q3 were infrastructure and exchange & wallets. This partially resembles the trend in Q2 with the exception of exchanges & wallets projects.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
30ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Top 5 Industries by Amount Raised per MonthThe graph shows the change dynamics in the top 5 industries by the amount raised of every project belonging to these industries. The Y-axis indicates the number of projects, and the X-axis indicates the month.
Industries with the highest received funding vary from month to month. It is quite unusual to see projects from the sports and education industries on such lists, as they have not shown good results in the past.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
Jul Aug Sep
April May June
Funds raised↓
Sports0$100 M
BlockchainInfrastructure0
$100 M
Crowdfunding& lending$50 M
Exchanges& wallets$50 M
Energy& utilities$50 M
Data analytics$50 M
Drugs& Healthcare$50 M
Industries↓
Computing& data storage$50 M
Education$50 M
Travel& tourism$50 M
IT0$100 M
Mining0$100 M
Banking& Payments0
$100 M
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10 20 30 40 50
blockchain infrastructure
trading
drugs & healthcaremining
identity & reputationmedia
art & music
crowdfunding & lending
commerce & retail
banking & payments
ITcomputing& data storage
sports
real assetsenergy& utilities
travel & tourism
dataanalytics
gambling & betting
financial services
exchanges & wallets
$150 M
$100 M
$50 M
Raised funds↓
Numberof projects
→
Number of Projects Distributed by IndustryThe graph shows the distribution of the top 20 industries selected by the total amount raised during their ICOs, depending on the number of projects belonging to these industries.
It is worth mentioning that financial services projects, just as in Q2, continued to lead the way in terms of funds attracted and with the number of projects. Other leading industries in terms of funds raised, are blockchain infrastructure and exchanges & wallets. The exchanges & wallets category has the largest number of projects for this quarter.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
32ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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–100%
Industry↓
ROI → 0 25%–25%–50%–50%
Marketing & Advertising
Trading
Exchanges & Wallets
Transport
Computing & Data storage
Commerce & Retail
Blockchain Infrastructure
Media
Financial services
Asset management
Average Return for ICOs in 2018 by SectorThe average ROI by industry for the third quarter is positive only for the Marketing & Advertising sector.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
34ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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UK$249 M39 projects
Singapore$241.3 M46 projects
Cayman Islandss$125.3 M12 projects
Switzerland$108.4 M21 projects
Hong Kong$103.9 M14 projects
Spain$91.6 M2 projects
Estonia$72.9 M26 projects
USA$61 M30 projects
Canada$47.1 M5 projects
Gibraltar$46.9 M14 projects
Australia$44.7 M14 projects
Liechtenstein$33.5 M3 projects
Austria$29.5 M3 projects
Seychelles$28.9 M7 projects
Saint Vincentand the Grenadines$19.3 M, 1 projects
Belize$16.9 M3 projects
Germany$16.8 M8 projects
Barbados$15 M1 projects
Russia$12.8 M9 projects
British Virgin Islandss$12.7 M12 projects
Geographical Distribution for Projects Based on the Country of RegistrationThe map shows the total investment amount and number of projects, depending on country of registration*
*The ‘Country of registration’ means the country in which the company’s legal entity is registered at the time of the ICO. If a project does not have a legal entity, it is not included in this map. The country of the project registration is determined on the basis of open data, including the project’s official websites and public databases of registered companies.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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0Funds raised →
Country ↓
$2,5 М 5 М 7,5 М
UK
Estonia
Canada
Hong Kong
Singapore
Austria
Georgia
New Zealand
Liechtenstein
Cayman Islands
Top-20 Countries of Registration based on Median Raised Funds
We have filtered out countries hosting fewer than 3 projects in order to make the analysis less biased.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
Regarding median funds raised, the best results were shown by projects with company registrations in the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein.
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Russia$182.9 M63 projects
UK$157.6 M22 projects
USA$155.5 M65 projects China
$105.7 M30 projects
Spain$91.2 M4 projects Singapore
$78.3 M16 projects
South Korea$68.1 M17 projects
India$67.1 M18 projects
Australia$51.2 M13 projects
Ukraine$46.3 M11 projects
Kuwait$41.3 M2 projects
Switzerland$36.8 M9 projects
Italy$34.6 M11 projects
Austria$29.5 M2 projects
Vietnam$27.6 M5 projects
Dominican Republic$23.9 M1 projects
Romania$21.7 M4 projects
Canada$20.7 M5 projects
Israel$19.6 M6 projects
Geographical Distribution of Projects Based on Origin of the Project TeamThe map shows the total investment amount and number of projects, depending on project’s country of origin*
*‘Country of origin’ means a country in which more than 50% of team members were actually residing at the time of an ICO. If projects have an international team, they are not included in this map. The country of origin is determined on the basis of open information about the team, including official project websites and team members’ social media.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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0Funds raised →
Country ↓
$2.5 M $5 M $7.5 M $10 M
Estonia
South Korea
France
Ukraine
UAE
Vietnam
Romania
Georgia
Singapore
Spain
Top-10 Countries of Origin based on Median Raised Funds
We have filtered out countries hosting fewer than 3 projects in order to make the analysis less biased.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
The best results based on median funds raised in the 3nd quarter were shown by projects with teams from Spain and Singapore.
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12.81%North America
$176 M raised funds70 projects
Other$267.6 M raised funds
93 projects
19.46%
Asia$268 M raised funds
73 projects
19.51%
Europe $663 M raised funds 177 projects
48.22%
Regional Project funding as a Percentage of the Total Amount of Funds RaisedThe graph shows project funding as a percentage of the total amount raised during the ICO, according to the project region. The project region is determined on the basis of data for the country of project origin.
In the third quarter of 2018, the majority of projects were based in Europe, which was the origin for 43% of all projects. Meanwhile, the leader in terms of fundraising was Europe, with 48% of all funds raised. Projects from Asia showed an decrease in funds raised (–65%), and a drop in the number of launched projects (–10%).
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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Growth of Capitalization after ICOThe graph shows the percentage change in market capitalization for projects listed on exchanges.*
Market cap →
Capitalization change →
$10 M $20 M $30 M $40 M
0 250% 500% 750%−250% 5,113%
0
Projects↓
Close priceexchanges↓
OptiToken
DAEX
Futurax (FXC)
Vikky
IGTokens
CyClean
Talao
One Ledger
Peculium
0xcert
4NEW
0,364857
0,031858
0,000113
0,000144
0,000156
0,008432
0,065073
0,007567
0,00159
0,007823
0,035679
Raised Funds →
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*Percentage changes are calculated in the following way: Market cap for the given period in USD (in our case, 2018-10-10) / funds raised in USD * 100 − 100. Projects are arranged in descending order by change in capitalization amount.
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ROI↓
0
$10 M
$20 M
$30 M
$40 M
0
250%
100%
−100%
500%
750%
1000%
Raisedfunds↓
Projects →
ROI after ICOs by Funds Raised (by the end of the quarter)
The graph shows the distribution of amount of funds and ROI.*
According to results from the 3rd quarter of 2018, the median return from tokens was −22%. With the exclusion of the project FINTRUX, this figure is −68%. The same indicator was +49.32% in the 1st quarter and −55.38% in the 2nd quarter. 88% of tokens were traded below their ICO price.
*ROI was calculated using the formula (Current Value − Beginning Value) / Beginning Value, where Beginning Value is the minimum price for 1 token at the ICO, and Current Value is the closed price for 1 token on 2018-10-10.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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ROI↓
0
$10 M
$20 M
$30 M
$40 M
0
250%
100%
−100%
500%
750%
1000%
Raisedfunds↓
Projects →
Tokens ROI after 3 Days on Exchanges by Raised FundsThe graph shows the distribution amount of funds raised, and ROI.*
According to results from the 3rd quarter of 2018, the median return from tokens is 3.35%. 79% of tokens were traded below the ICO price.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*ROI was calculated using the formula (Current Value − Beginning Value) / Beginning Value, where Beginning Value is the minimum price for 1 token at the ICO, and Current Value is the closed price for 1 token after 3 days of being listed on exchanges.
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500 75 100
Percentagefor pre-sale
↓
Numberof projects
→25
51-60%
41-50%
31-40%
21-30%
11-20%
1-10%
The Distribution of Projects Based on the Percentage of Tokens Allocated to Private and Pre-Sale StagesMost projects in Q3 allocated less than 10% of all tokens to pre-sales.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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0 $5 M $10 M $15 M
Percentagefor presale
↓
Medianraised funds
→
1-10%
11-20%
21-30%
31-40%
41-50%
51-60%
Median of Raised Funds Based on The Percentage of Tokens for Pre-saleThe graph shows median distributions of funds raised based on the percentage of all the token supply dedicated to pre-sale rounds.
Projects that allocated more than 50% for their pre-sale stages were the most successful in terms of median funds raised.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
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20 40 60Number of successful projects →Number of unsuccessful projects →
Percentagefor pre-sale
↓
51-60%
41-50%
31-40%
21-30%
11-20%
1-10%
Number of Successful ICOs by Percentage of Tokens Allocated to the Pre-SaleProjects in which less than 10% of tokens were allocated to private and pre-sale stages were unsuccessful in 67% of cases.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
*A project is considered successful if the project raised more than $0.5 million.
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1.17%Stellar
1.34%NEO
1.68%Waves
83.75%Ethereum
12.06%Other
Token Sale PlatformsThe initial emission of tokens in 84% of cases occurs on the basis of the Ethereum platform. At this stage of ecosystem development, Ethereum continues to monopolize the market due to (for example) easy listing on DEX (most tokens on which are also built on Ethereum or the 0x protocol). 3rd quarter projects also used such blockchains as NEO, Stellar, and Waves.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
48ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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86.13%dApp
8.96%Protocol
4.91%Custom blockchain
Types of Products Created by ProjectsAbout 87% of projects staged their ICOs with the intention of creating a Dapp on a third-party blockchain. Infrastructure projects still represent a small fraction of the total number of projects. It is important to note that, according to DappRadar, as of October 10, 2018 the highest number of users per day was in the High-Risk category (# 1 - 333ETH - 2171 users / 24h). In order to make the top 10 by number of users per day, a marketplace or game should be used by at least 300 people.
Additionally, 760 Dapps registered on the platform on 10.10.18 (77% of the total number) did not have even a single user per day. Also it is interesting to note that IDEX (about which we wrote in the report for the 2nd quarter) lost about 43% of users in the period from August 10 to October 10.
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1000 300
Producttype
↓
Number of successful projects →Number of unsuccessful projects →
Blockchain
Protocol
dApp
Distribution of Successful Projects by Product Type67% of all Dapps ICOs were not successful. Unsuccessful campaigns by category: Protocol — 43%; custom blockchain — 51%.
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82.17%Closed-source
17.83%Open-source
Distribution of Projects Based on Whether the Project is Open-source or not67% of closed-source projects did not submit anything to the community other than ideas at the time of their ICOs.
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100 200Number of Projects, Successful →Number of Projects, Unsuccessful →
Opensourcecode
↓
Open-source
Closed-source
Distribution of Successful Projects Based on Whether the Code is Open-Source or not69.42% of projects that either did not have a GitHub repository, or had a closed GitHub, were unsuccessful in terms of funds raised. 41.9% of projects with open-source code were unsuccessful.
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More than 4 years 3—4 Years 1—2 Years Less than one year
↑Number
of projects
Company lifeperiod
→
26
101
12
412
Distribution of Projects Based on the Company’s Age The majority of companies (71%) staging an ICO have existed for less than a year. The average company age is 12 months.
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>10 5—10 <5
↑Number
of projects
Numberof developers
→
102
9
423
Distribution of Projects Based on the Number of Developers79% of all projects staging ICOs had fewer than 5 developers on their team. Only 1% of projects had more than 10 developers on board.
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Distribution of Projects by Product Launch YearMost Q3 projects have promised to release a finished product in 2019.
2021 2023202020192018
150
50
100
0
250
200
Numbersof projects
↓
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Private Token Sale and Blockchain VC
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The Main Figures for Blockchain VC
have been collected by 78 blockchain projects via VC funding rounds.
The average funding of projects with a disclosed amount of investment is 17.4 million.
$957,910,860
$17.4 million
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Comparing Funding of Blockchain Projects via ICO and VCThe rate of decline in fundraising for the quarter is similar for the VC and ICO methods.
250 M0 750 M
Producttype
↓
500 MICO →VC →
Jul
Aug
Sep
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Distribution of VC-funded Blockchain Projects With and Without a TokenAbout half of projects are planning to implement a token into their product.
54%Non-Tokenized
46%Tokenized
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Distribution of VC-funded Blockchain Projects Based on Whether they Held an Airdrop or notAbout 13% of projects refer to existing ways of attracting the crypto community to their projects and assets.
87%Had No Airdrop Campaign
13%Had an Airdrop Campaign
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Top Industries with Highest Cumulative Sum of Raised Funds
The most popular Q3 industries for VC are the Financial Services and Blockchain Infrastructure categories. This trend is similar to that found in crowdsales.
0Raised Funds→
Industries↓
$100 M $200M
Banking & Payments
Media
Art & Music
Trading
Exchanges & Wallets
Gaming & VR
IT
Computing & Data Storage
Blockchain Infrastructure
Financial Services
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Distribution of VC-funded Blockchain Projects Based on Product Type
Protocol7%
Blockchain15%
Dapp
78%
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Cumulative Sum of Funds Raised by Product TypeBoth in terms of the number of projects receiving funding and in terms of the amount of funds raised, the dapps category is in the lead.
0Sum raised→
Protocol
Blockchain
Dapp
$200 M $400 M
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Distribution of Project Based on Company Age
More than 4 years 3—4 Years 1—2 Years Less than one year
↑Number
of projects
Company lifeperiod
→
65
2
31
64ICO Market Research Q3 2018
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Median VC Funding Raised by Development StageProjects with a ready beta version were the most successful in terms of median raised investments.
0Median raised→
Developmentstage
↓
Idea
Fully-ready product
Code
Alpha
MVP
Beta
$20 M $40 M
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Geographical Distribution of Projects Based on Country of Registration
USA$364.1 M15 projects
Switzerland$102 M1 project
China$50.3 M7 projects
Singapore$31.6 M3 projects
Cayman Islands$27 M1 project
UK$3.3 M4 projects
Australia$2.9 M2 projects
Israel$1 M1 project
Monako1 project
Argentina1 project
Kenya$0.5 M1 project
Mauritius$0.3 M1 project
Slovenia$0.1 M1 project
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Geographical Distribution of VC-funded Projects Based on Origin of Project Team
USA$299.6 M16 projects
Multinational$293.1 M6 projects
China$141.1 M12 projects
Israel$19 M2 projects
UK$6.2 M3 projects
Australia$2.9 M2 projects
Germany$2 M1 project
Kenya$0.8 M2 projects
Slovenia$0.1 M1 project
Argentina1 project
Monaco1 project
Russia1 project
South Africa1 project
Taiwan1 project
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Primary Contact:Anastasia BlakeChief Business Development Officerbizdev@icorating.com
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