The very first ICO was held just over 5 years ago, when J.R. Willett pioneered the idea for his startup Mastercoin. That was 2013, and just a few short years later there have been over 1,500 ICOs to date.
ICOs follow the fundraising model of a traditional IPO, but instead of a stock, it is a new crypto or blockchain-based token offered by the company in exchange for investors’ funds. Usually, there is a specific business case or new functionality promised.
Unlike on the stock market, you don’t have to actually build a successful company before the ICO. However, companies must complete their research, concept, strategy, roadmap and marketing/PR plan. The investment-seeking startup should clearly communicate to potential investors how their product is going to solve the outlined problem.
EOS has raised over $4 billion dollars so far using the ICO model, and other successful examples include Ethereum ($18.4 million in 2014), ARK ($5 million in 2016) and Bankera ($151 million 2018). More than the initial money raised, you can also measure success by the return on that initial investment, which is as high as 598,000% (NXT).
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