2017 was a crazy year for ICOs. We were in a major bull, at least with sentiment. Money was flowing like mad and people were investing in anything. It was a time when we saw record amounts of money raised in a few minutes. It was not uncommon for the ICO to sell out in under 30 minutes.
Then the bear hit in 2018. We saw massive warnings about ICOs along with regulators starting to clamp down. This led to financing drying up. On one hand it is a good thing since the scammers scurried away. However, it did cut off legitimate funding to those projects that are genuine and need it.
2018 was also the year of development. While the bear was in charge, the developers went to work. Applications across the entire industry are being produced. This is having an impact on where the industry stands right now. We are seeing a strong foundation laid.
This year is going to see some of those projects take the next step. One such project is here on Steem. 
Using a variety of exchanges, they are raising money. This funding is should aid in the expansion of the application. Recently, they started the first round of funding on the second exchange (they are using 4 exchanges total).
In this market, the speed which an offering sells out is a sign of how the project is viewed. This round of funding, over $60K, sold out in 11 seconds.
Yes you read that correctly, the round sold out in an amazing 11 seconds.
According to their post, this surpassed the 3 minutes it took to sell out on the first exchange.
The second round of funding on Probit is slated to take place tomorrow.
https://www.probit.com/ko-kr/ieo/hunt-round1/1
The entire post is can be read here.
Since they first showed up on the Steem blockchain, Steemhunt has been one of the leading development teams. They are a creative bunch who implemented a number of different innovations that others followed. Being the first one to offer HUNT tokens in exchange for SP delegation netted then over 1.5 SP delegated. They also put together the IEO that a number of Steem applications are going to follow.
What is really exciting is the reach that Steemhunt is having. Their DAU just topped 30K according to the post. This is a ton of traffic for a DApp on the blockchain. This is telling me there are a lot of readers on that site who enjoy the content that is posted.
Having a successful IEO, especially one that sells out so quickly, is only going to get more attention. We all benefit if Steemhunt is able to pull more people into this ecosystem. Investors are bound to take notice with numbers like that. We all know the traffic in this industry, thus far, is slow. Steemhunt is jumping to the head of the class in that category.
I am very happy to be holding HUNT tokens myself. Over the past year, I participated in their bounties and promotions. This is the value of the Steem ecosystem, someone can join and partake in events like this. We realize that not every project will succeed but many will. Being a part of it in the early days pays enormous benefits.
What is really exciting is the Steemhunt project is only now moving towards phase 2: Reviewhunt. This is going to be a business model that is able to attract attention from those who are seeking to promote their technical products. Using the reward mechanism, individual users can benefit by providing their expertise and experience with different products.
On Facebook, an upvote carries no value yet it does on Steem. At the same time, reviews on Amazon do not provide any payment to the one posting it. On Steem, with the Steemhunt model, that no longer will be the case.
Once again, we see individuals being rewarded for the value they bring to an ecosystem.
Exciting days ahead.
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