ICO Market Research Q2 2018 1

ICO Market
Research
Q2 2018
Primary Contact:
Mikhail Mironov
Head of Partnerships
The Rating Agency for the ICO Market
+31 6 83624781
[email protected]
icorating icorating ico_rating
Amsterdam

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 2

About the Company

ICORating is the Our main aim is to create transparency in the market,
global market leader and to provide investors with the tools they need to make
informed, evidence-based decisions in order to bridge
for independent, non- capital and transparent ICOs.
affiliated analytical research
Our team members have an average of 6 years of
on ICO projects, conducting experience with companies including hedge funds, large
detailed evaluations and investment banks, major consulting groups, and venture
funds. Two years ICO market analysis, combined with
assigning them investment this diverse set of skills and experience, has enabled us
ratings. to develop a unique multidisciplinary approach. We have
evaluated over 400 ICO projects for both private and
institutional clients since we started doing business in
September 2016.

50+
in-house
≈400
reviewed or
Over 30 crypto-focused funds, with a combined AUM of $2
billion, regularly receive our weekly newsletter featuring
analysts rated projects 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

30+
crypto funds
$2B+
collective AUM of
look. Our detailed, unbiased reports evaluate ICO-project
technical elements, business models, and tokenomics,
teams, and other critical factors.
the crypto funds

icorating.com
ICO Market Research Q2 2018 3

Welcome Message
In Q2, we have observed how the nature of We at ICORating believe that the market should
investment in the sector continues to change, be more transparent and safe for every player
and how the amount of money and degree of and the first step to accomplish this is to create
requirements for projects has multiplied. a higher standard of information disclosure for
every pre-ICO and especially post-ICO project.
The key market trends in Q2 2018 include: Our fundamental aim and mission is to deliver
1. A sharp increase in the share of institutional this higher level of transparency to investors and
capital and a continued decline in the number of exchanges.
retail investors. This leads to a situation where
project requirements increase and the amount
of funds raised during an ICO increasingly
Sasha Kamshilov,
depends on how well projects cooperate with
Chief Executive Officer
investment funds.
2. A significant rise in the impact that crypto
exchanges have on the market. High efficiency
strategy and relationships with exchanges has
become a crucial factor for success on the
secondary market.
3. Lastly, a shift in the structure of most token
sales. In Q2, many projects preferred to raise
the majority of their ICO funding in private sales
rather than public sales.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 4

Table of Contents

ICO market review 11 — 17

Tokens and products 18 — 26

Industry review of ICO campaigns 27 — 34

ICO geography 35 — 40

Post-ICO performance 41 — 44

Token sale structure 45 — 63

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 5

Review of Q2

$8,359,976,282
is the total funding amount raised by 827 projects over the
quarter, compared to the $3,331,005,381 collected in the 1st
quarter of 2018. Thus, there has been a 151% increase in Q2
of 2018. Funds raised by EOS project account for most of this
increase, they have collected $4,197,956,135 for a year-long
ICO.

ICO market has more than doubled

in a year
Collectively, ICOs of 2018 have already raised $11,690,981,663
of investments, which is 10 times bigger than the cumulative
sum of investments from ICOs of Q1-2 2017. Excluding EOS,
the cumulative amount of funding received from ICOs of Q1—2
2018 is 6.4 times bigger than the one of Q1-2 2017. The ICO
market has more than doubled in a year.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 6

Review of Q2

Half of the projects couldn’t

raise more than $100 K
50% of the ICO projects announced in Q2 of 2018 were
not able to attract more than 100,000 USD. Comparing the
current state of affairs with what was happening a year ago,
the percentage of ICOs which could not raise $100,000, has
increased from 13% in Q1-Q2 2017 to over 50% in Q1-Q2
2018, which tells us that the overall quality of projects has
significantly worsened. That being said, generally, the quality
has improved compared to the end of 2017.

Only 7% are listed on exchanges

Only 7% of all announced ICOs were able to be listed on
exchanges. In Q2, the average time for listing increased by
6 days. The number of projects listed in the shortest time
possible after ICO completion decreased by 22%.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 7

Review of Q2

In May 2018, the number of successful projects doubled

compared with the same data in January 2018. In June,
the number of successful projects decreased dramatically
compared to May. This proportion is the same as the decrease
in total raised funds.

55% of all ICOs failed

55% of all ICOs failed to complete their crowdfunding (5%
more than in Q1). On average, in Q2, projects raised either $1-5
million (17%) or $10-25 million (12%).

10.83%
Compared with Q1, the number of projects that intend to
attract funds at the idea stage increased by 10.83%.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 8

Review of Q2

The top projects raised $50 M

On average, the top projects for Q2 raised 50 million USD.
Only 3 mentioned projects attracted all their funds in the
course of 1 day. On average, these projects raised their money
within 63 days (the average campaign duration time
is the same as in Q1, but there is an evident tendency for an
increase, at least by 10%). Compared with Q1, the number of
projects offering tokens with service characteristics decreased
by 24%. The share of projects that offer security tokens
decreased by 8%. The number of projects with utility tokens
increased by 32%.

15% projects with an already-

operating business
The number of projects with an already-operating business
comprised 15% of the total number (+6% compared with
Q1). The absence of a working business had no effect on
fundraising success.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 9

Review of Q2

Projects at the idea stage raised the lowest average funding

compared to other categories (4.5 million USD).

Numbers and Geography

In Q2 2018, the majority of projects were launched in
Europe — 46% of all projects. North America was the leader
in terms of funds raised — 64.67% of all funding attracted.
Asia-based projects showed an increase in funds raised
(+20%), but a decrease in the number of projects launched
(–40%).

39% of unregistered projects

The number of unregistered projects was 39% (15% more than
in Q1).

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 10

Review of Q2

–55.38% was the median

return from tokens
According to the results from the 2nd quarter of 2018. The
median return for Q1 was +49.32%.

53% of all DApp ICOs

were unsuccessful
53% percent of all DApp ICOs were unsuccessful, i.e they failed
to raise more than US$500,000. 21% of the projects which
offered protocol solutions, and 32% of the custom blockchain
campaigns, were unsuccessful.

7871 ICO investors on average

Average number of ICO investors was 7871 (including
bounty and airdrop token holders) for the projects that did
not announce funds participation in a crowdsale. Medium
number of ICO investors for these projects were 1411.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 11

ICO Market
Review

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 12

Main Figures for ICOs

50% of the ICO projects announced in Q2 2018 exchange listing rules, for instance, the situation
were not able to raise more than 100,000 USD. with IDEX. Another factor is the change in the
Only 7% of all announced ICOs were listed on requirements for sufficient token liquidity.
exchanges. It is worth mentioning that 9% of the projects
In Q2, the average listing time increased by 6 that announced their ICOs have already deleted
days. The number of projects that were able their social network accounts and websites this
to be listed in the shortest time possible after quarter. 2% of the projects that claimed they had
ICO completion decreased by 22%. In general, raised more than 100,000 USD have also done
these changes might be connected with stricter so.
It took 27 days on average from the completion of an ICO to the vesting of tokens for secondary trading.

827
ICOs were staged
204
of them raised more
61
were able to be
in Q2 2018 than $100,000 listed on exchanges

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 13

Number of Successful Projects

and Their Funding
HOW TO READ The graph shows the relationship of total project We have updated the data on successful
THE GRAPH
funding during ICOs by month to the number projects and the cumulative sum of funds
of successful* projects by month. The left axis raised for Q1 2018 due to diversification of
indicates the total funding for projects for the data sources.
period (month); the right axis indicates the number It must be mentioned that the EOS ICO was
of successful projects for the period. not taken into account in the final statistics.
In May 2018, the number of successful
A project is considered successful if its soft cap
* projects doubled compared to January
was reached, or the project raised more than 2018.
$500,000 if there was no soft cap. In June, the number of successful projects
decreased dramatically compared to May.
The proportion is the same as the decrease
in total funding raised.

$2 B 150

$1.5 B 100

$1 B 50

$0.5 B
↑
↑ Successfully
Total funding completed
for projects projects
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 14

Overall ICO
Funding Amount
HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of ICO
Funds raised >$150 M THE GRAPH
↓
campaigns by the amount of funds raised.

$100—150 M
55% of all ICOs failed to complete
their crowdfunding. Most often in Q2,
$50—100 M projects raised either 1—5 million
(17%) or 10—25 million (12%).

$25—50 M

$10—25 M

$5—10 M

$1—5 M

$0.5—1 M

$0—0.5 M

Number
of projects → 0 50 100 150 461

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 ICO Market Research Q2 2018 15

Top 20 ICO Campaigns with

The Largest Amount of Funds
HOW TO READ The chart shows the amount of investments
THE GRAPH
Project MoneyToken attracted by the top 20 ICO campaigns in
↓
KELTA Q2 of 2018.
CashBet Coin
FANTOM The average amount of funding attracted by the
Patron top Q2 ICO projects is 50 million USD.
SIX.Network
Consentium
Shopin
Fresco
UCMG
GoNetwork
Hybrid Block
DCC
VideoCoin
Gold Bits Coin
MOOVER
Nexo
HYCON
Flashmoni
PumaPay

Raised funds → 0 25 M 50 M 75 M 100 M 117 M

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 ICO Market Research Q2 2018 16

10 Largest ICOs in Terms

of Funds Raised, Q1-Q2 2018
HOW TO READ The projects shown in this chart raised more Projects that have raised over 1 billion US
*

THE GRAPH
dollars.
than 60 million USD over Q1 and Q2 2018.
Two of them (EOS and Telegram) are ICO
unicorns.*

Project ↓ Zeepin

HYCON

Flashmoni

Envion

PumaPay

Orbs

Bankera

Huobi

Telegram

EOS

Funds raised → 0 $1 B $2 B $3 B $4 B

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 17

Amounts and Rates of Funding for ICO Campaigns

HOW TO READ The graph shows the relation between Only 3 of the projects mentioned managed to
THE GRAPH
funds raised during ICOs, and the duration attract all their funding in 1 day. The average
of campaigns for the top 20 ICOs by fundraising period was 63 days.
the amount of funds raised. The Y-axis
indicates ICO funding in USD, and the
Raised funds↓ X-axis indicates the ICO duration in days.
$400 M

EOS

$118 M
Orbs PumaPay
$80 M

Flashmoni
$70 M HYCON

$60 M

Nexo
Gold Bits Coin MOOVER
$50 M DCC
Hybrid Block (HYB)
GoNetwork VideoCoin
UCMG
Fresco
SIX.Network
Shopin
$40 M FANTOM Consentium
CashBet Coin Patron

1 day period
$30 M
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 368
ICO duration in days →
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 18

Tokens
and Products

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 19

Tokens and Products

Having analyzed statistics from the
ICO campaigns, we determined:

A What value and meaning organizers

give to the token they aim to sell.

The stage of development of the

B product offered to the market.

C How many projects are planning to

tokenize an existing business.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 20

Tokens and Products

In the 2nd quarter of 2018, ICO organizers offered
the following types of crypto assets for sale:

Vote token Cryptocurrency Security tokens

Tokens which confer on New cryptocurrency Tokens secured by an obligation (here
a holder the right to vote (without additional we include promises of dividend
and the ability to influence exceptional properties). payment, receipt of company shares,
project development. credit tokens).

Reward token Service token Hybrid token

Used to reward A token used as the internal currency to Payment for services +
the contributions pay for project services (can be replaced, bonuses for work
of participants for example, with ETH without damage to performed.
to the network. the product; this is evident when analyzing
a project).

Utility tokens
being tokens of the protocol
itself (there is a real need
for tokens being sold).

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 21

Token Types Found in ICO Projects

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of Compared to Q1, the number of projects offering
THE GRAPH
projects staging ICOs depending on the tokens with service characteristics decreased
type of the project’s token. by 24%. The share of projects offering security
tokens decreased by 8%. The number of projects
with utility tokens increased by 32%.

0.27%
Vote token

0.81%
Reward token

1.36%
Cryptocurrency

4.88%
Security token

42.5% 35.37% 15.04%

Hybrid token
Utility token

Service token

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 22

Mean of Funds Raised During ICOs by Token Type

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of Projects offering utility tokens were the leaders
THE GRAPH
the mean of funds raised during ICOs in terms of the mean of raised funds. The lowest
depending on the project’s token type. mean amount of funds were raised by projects
that offered security and vote tokens.

Token type Vote token

↓

Security token

Service token

Hybrid token

Reward token

Cryptocurrency

Utility token

Mean raised → 0 $5 M $10 M $15 M $20 M $22 M

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 23

Number of Unsuccessful ICOs by Token Type

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of Similarly to Q1, projects that offered service
THE GRAPH
the number of unsuccessful* projects tokens were among the least successful projects
depending on the project’s token type. in this category. There were also a large number
(49%) of unsuccessful ICOs among projects
*
A project is considered unsuccessful if the with utility tokens. It is worth mentioning that
project raised less than $0.5 million.
emission conditions, token type, and metrics had
indirect effect on fundraising success.

Token Cryptocurrency
type
↓
Hybrid token

Reward token

Security token

Service token

Utility token

Vote token

Number of Projects, Successful →

0 Number of Projects, Unsuccessful → 50 100 150

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 24

Development Stages for ICO Projects

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution Compared with Q1, the number of projects
THE GRAPH
of projects staging an ICO by the that aimed to attract funds at the idea
development stage* of their product at stage increased by 10.83%. The number of
the start of their ICO. projects with an already-operating business
was comprised of 15% of all projects (+6%
*
defined by the project’s team compared with Q1). The presence, or absence,
of an operating business had no effect on the
fundraising success.

1.35%
code

1.76%
fully-ready product

57.43% 20.54% 9.86% 9.05%

mvp beta alpha

idea

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 25

Mean of ICO Funds Raised by Development Stage

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of Projects at the idea stage raised the lowest
THE GRAPH
the mean of funds raised during ICOs, amount of funding on average, when compared
depending on the development stage of with other categories (4.5 million USD).
products of different projects.

Development Code
stage
↓

Idea

Alpha

Fully-ready product

Beta

MVP

Mean raised 0 $10 M $20 M $30 M $34.5 M

→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 26

Number of Unsuccessful ICOs by Development Stage

HOW TO READ The graph shows the number of The highest percentage of unsuccessful ICOs in
THE GRAPH
distribution of unsuccessful* projects terms of product readiness arose from projects
depending on the development stage at the idea stage. 58% of such projects failed to
of the project’s product. raise more than half a million dollars.

*
A project is considered unsuccessful if the
project raised less than $0.5 million.

Development alfa
stage
↓

beta

code

fully-ready product

idea

mvp

Number of Projects, Successful →

0 50 Number of Projects, Unsuccessful → 150 200 250

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 27

Industries
Review

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 28

Top 20 Project Industries by the Mean Hard Cap

Industry ↓ Banking & Payments HOW TO READ The graph indicates the 20 industries
THE GRAPH
with the largest average hard cap. The
Real Estate
X-axis indicates the average declared
Exchanges & Wallets
amount of funds for the implementation
Art & Music of projects from particular industries.
Computing & Data Storage
Sports
Over the past quarter, projects have undergone
Internet & Telecommunications a radical change in terms of the declared hard
Investment cap. It is worth mentioning that energy-and-
Social Media & Communications utilities, and real-asset projects had the highest
Business Services & Consulting declared hard caps. In general, there is no
stable correlation between type of industry and
Media
amount of funds declared at the crowdsale.
Environmental Services However, financial, mining, and infrastructural
IT projects still require the largest amount of
Drugs & Healthcare investment for product implementation.
Mining
Financial Services
Blockchain Infrastructure
Legal Services
Real Assets
Energy & Utilities

Mean Hard
Cap → 0 $20 M $40 M $60 M $80 M $100 M $120 M

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 29

Top 10 Most Popular Industries

HOW TO READ The graph shows the top 10 industries
THE GRAPH
Industry Drugs & Healthcare by the number of projects belonging to
↓
these industries. The Y-axis indicates
Gambling & Betting the number of projects, and the X-axis
indicates the industry names.
Banking & Payments

Business Services & Consulting

Following Q1 trends, the most popular industries

Commerce & Retail
with the largest number of projects were
finance, gaming, and infrastructure. The number
Marketing & Advertising of gaming projects doubled compared with Q1.

Social Media & Communications

Blockchain Infrastructure

Gaming & VR

Investment

Financial Services

Number
of projects 0 25 50 75 87
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 30

Top 5 Most Popular

Number April May June Industries
of projects 10 ↓
↓
Industries by Month 0
Exchanges
& Wallets

15
HOW TO READ The graph shows the change dynamics
THE GRAPH Blockchain
in the top 5 industries by the number of 0 Infrastructure
projects that belong to these industries. 10
The Y-axis indicates the number of Commerce
projects, and the X-axis indicates the 0 & Retail

month. 30

20

0 Financial Services

15

0 Gaming & VR

20

Looking at changes in the popularity of

different industries, financial and gaming Investment
0
projects consistently prevail each month.
10
Interestingly, projects in social media and Social Media
communications, marketing and advertising, 0 & Communication

commerce and retail, and exchanges and

wallets industries had increased popularity 5
Marketing
during certain months. 0 & Advertising
April May June
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 31

Top 10 Industries by Funds Raised

HOW TO READ The graph shows the top 10 industries
THE GRAPH
Industries Business Services & Consulting by amount raised. The X-axis indicates
↓
the number of projects, and the Y-axis
Computing & Data Storage indicates industry type.

Trading The most popular industries in terms of total

attracted funds in Q2 were infrastructure and
healthcare projects. This partially resembles
Investment
the Q1 trend with the exception of healthcare
projects.
Social Media & Communications

Drugs & Healthcare

Internet & Telecommunications

Banking & Payments

Blockchain Infrastructure

Financial Services

Raised Funds 0 $100 M $200 M $300 M $400 M $475 M

→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 32

Top 5 Industries by
Funds raised April May June Industries
↓ $100 M ↓

Amount Raised per Month 0 Art & Music

$100 M Exchanges
HOW TO READ The graph shows the change dynamics 0 & Wallets
THE GRAPH
in the top 5 industries by the amount
$150 M
raised of every project belonging to
Banking
these industries. The Y-axis indicates 0 & Payments
the number of projects, and the X-axis
indicates the month. $100 M Drugs
0 & Healthcare

$100 M
Social Media
0 & Communication

$200 M

Blockchain
0 Infrastructure

Looking at changes in the most $300 M

profitable industries, infrastructure and

gaming projects consistently prevail each $100 M
Financial
month. 0 Services

Regarding other sectors, the most $100 M

profitable industries vary completely 0 IT
each month. It is quite unusual to see
projects from the art and music, and $50 M Transport
transport industries on the list as they
have not shown good results in the past. $50 M Trading
April May June
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 33

Number of Projects Distributed by Industry

HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of It is worth mentioning that financial services
THE GRAPH
the top 20 industries selected by the projects, just as in Q1, still led the way in
total amount raised during their ICOs, terms of funds attracted, and in the number of
depending on the number of projects projects. Other leading industries, in terms of
belonging to these industries. funds raised, are blockchain infrastructure, and
banking and payments. The investment industry
has the largest number of projects.
Raised funds↓
$500 M

Blockchain Infrastructure
Financial
Services

$400 M

Banking & Payments

$300 M

Internet &
Telecommunications
Drugs & Healthcare
$200 M
Social Media & Communications Investment
Computing
& Data Storage Trading Business Services & Consulting
IT Commerce & Retail
Art & Media
$100 M Music Gambling & Betting Gaming & VR
Marketing & Advertising
Transport Exchanges & Wallets
Privacy & Security

Number
of projects 10 20 30 40 50 60 91
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 34

Average Return for ICOs in 2018 by Sector

Industry Exchanges & Wallets

↓

Real Assets

Computing & Data Storage HOW TO READ Exchanges and wallets, real assets,
THE GRAPH
and computing & data storage
Drugs & Healthcare
demonstrated the highest mean
ROIs in Q2.

Blockchain Infrastructure

Internet & Telecommunications

Financial Services

Privacy & Security

Banking & Payments

Investment

–50% 0 ROI → 250% 914%

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 35

ICO
Geography

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 36

Geographical Distribution
for Projects Based on the
Country of Registration
HOW TO READ The map shows the total investment
THE GRAPH
amount and number of projects,
depending on country of registration*

UK
$301 M
Switzerland
49 projects
$298.1 M
25 projects
Isle of Man
$37 M
USA 2 projects Estonia
$393.7 M $193.8 m
Cyprus
70 projects $124.7 M 35 projects
Malta
$113 M 8 projects
8 projects Seychelles South Korea
Cayman Islands Slovak Republic $55.8 M $78.4 M
Belize $123.2 M 11 projects 2 projects
$41.4 M
$57.2 M
13 projects Gibraltar 3 projects Japan
12 projects $52.1 M
$132.5 m
7 projects
14 projects Thailand
St. Kitts and Nevis British Virgin Islands $42 M
$38.7 M $60.1 M 4 projects
2 projects 10 projects Hong Kong
$47.6 M
14 projects
*
The ‘Country of registration’ means the country in
Singapore
which the company’s legal entity is registered at the $574.8 M
time of the ICO. If a project does not have a legal 57 projects Australia
entity, it is not included in this map. The country of
$109.6 M
the project registration is determined on the basis
of open data, including the project’s official websites 14 projects
and public databases of registered companies.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 37

Top-20 Countries of Registration based

on Median Raised Funds excluding EOS
Registration Australia HOW TO READ We have filtered out countries hosting
country THE GRAPH

↓ Spain fewer than 3 projects in order to make

UK the analysis less biased.
Netherlands
United Arab Emirates
As for average raised funds, the best results
were shown by projects with company
Estonia
registrations in Malta, Gibraltar, and Singapore.
India
In many respects, we attribute this to an
China openness to blockchain projects and the legal
Costa Rica changes enacted by financial authorities in Malta
British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar. The percentage of unregistered
Belize projects was 39% in the 2nd quarter.
Latvia
Japan
Georgia
Slovak Republic
Cayman Islands
Switzerland
Singapore
Gibraltar
Malta
Median
raised 0 $25 M $50 M $75 M $100 M $119 M
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 38

Geographical Distribution
of Projects Based on Origin
of the Project Team
HOW TO READ The map shows the total investment
THE GRAPH
amount and number of projects,
depending on project country
of origin*

UK
Canada Estonia Russia
$65.3 M
$190.9 M $95.3 M
43 projects 15 projects
$264.2 M
10 projects
Ukraine 85 projects
$85.9 M
Switzerland
19 projects
$125.5 M
Portugal 20 projects
$93 M China
USA 4 projects
Romania United Arab Emirates Japan
$46.8 M $43.6 M $230 M
$4919.4 M 7 projects
$61.5 M
Gibraltar 12 projects 19 projects 11 projects
106 projects $117 M
2 projects
Israel
$91.7 M Hong Kong
$62.7 M South Korea
12 projects India
$117.5 M 12 projects $301.1 M
21 projects 16 projects

Singapore
$96.6 M
*
‘Country of origin’ means a country in which more
Multinational 23 projects
than 50% of team members were actually residing at $432 M
the time of an ICO. If projects have an international 68 projects
team, they are not included in this map. The
country of origin is determined on the basis of open
Australia
information about the team, including official project
$114.9 M
websites and team members’ social media. 18 projects

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 39

Top-20 Countries of Origin based

on Median Raised Funds excluding EOS
Registration Slovenia HOW TO READ We have filtered out countries hosting
country THE GRAPH

↓ Italy fewer than 3 projects in order to make

Norway the analysis less biased.
Australia
Estonia
The best results based on median funds raised
in the 2nd quarter were shown by projects with
Spain
teams from South Korea.
Switzerland
Russia
Canada
Multinational
India
Philippines
Poland
Lithuania
Hong Kong
South Africa
China
Israel
Portugal
South Korea
Median
raised 0 $5 M $10 M $15 M
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 40

Regional Project funding

as a Percentage of the Total
Amount of Funds Raised
HOW TO READ The graph shows project funding as
THE GRAPH
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. 11.03%
Rest of the world
In the second quarter of 2018, the majority of $849.5 M raised funds
155 projects
projects were based in Europe, which was the
origin of 46% of all projects. Meanwhile, the
leader in fundraising was North America — with
9.76%
Asia
64.67% of all funds raised there. Projects in $751.9 M raised funds
Asia showed an increase in raised funds (+20%), 81 projects
and a drop in the number of outgoing projects
(–40%). 14.55%
Europe
$1.12 B raised funds
303 projects

64.67%
North America
$4.98 B raised funds
116 projects

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 41

Post-ICO
Performance

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Growth of Capitalization
after ICO
HOW TO READ The graph shows the percentage
THE GRAPH
change in market capitalization
for projects listed on exchanges.

Close price
Projects Capitalization change → exchanges
↓ 0 100% 200% 300% 600% 750% 5952% ↓
Docademic 0,235758
Ternio 0,073997
SLT 2,14
GoChain 0,078004
Holo 0,000477
NKN 0,239723
Paymon 0,002943
Quark Chain 0,094399
DAOstack 0,153309
EOS 8,71
Nebula AI 0,0064
PCHAIN 0,06765
CEEK 0,036991
XYO Network 0,002179
Phantasma Protocol 0,139699
Bigbom Eco 0,005121
Bezant 0,084121
Auctus 0,158583
DCC 0,035643
Invacio 0,028499
0 $20 M $40 M $60 M $80 M $85 M $419 M $7.72 B
Market cap →
Raised Funds →

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 43

ROI after ICOs by Funds Raised Raised

(by the end of the quarter) funds
↓
ROI $60 M
HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution of amount ↓
THE GRAPH
of funds and ROI.*
900%
According to results from the 2nd quarter of 2018,
the median return from tokens was –55.38%. The $40 M
same indicator was +49.32% in the 1st quarter.
From those listed on exchanges, 75% of tokens
700%
were traded below the ICO price. A large amount
of funds raised gives no guarantee of a high return
$30 M
on investment.
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 2018-07-08. We
have excluded EOS from calculations to simplify the analysis.
400% $20 M

200% $10 M

100%

0 0
Projects →

−100%

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 44

Tokens ROI after 3 Days on Exchanges by Raised Funds

Raised
HOW TO READ The graph shows the distribution amount of funds
THE GRAPH ↓
funds raised, and ROI.*
$49 M
According to results from the 2nd quarter of
2018, the median return from tokens is –21.59%. ROI
↓
57% of tokens were traded below the ICO price.
A large amount raised does not guarantee a high 800% $40 M

return on investment.
700%

600% $30 M

500%

400% $20 M
*
ROI was calculated using the formula: (Current 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. We have excluded EOS from calculations
to simplify the analysis.
200% $10 M

100%

0 0
Projects →

−100%

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 45

Token Sale
Structure

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 46

The Distribution of Projects Based on the Percentage

of Tokens Allocated to Private and Pre-Sale Stages
HOW TO READ One of the trends in the 2nd quarter
THE GRAPH
was an increase in the share of tokens
allocated to private and presale
stages, and, accordingly, a decrease
in allocations for crowdsales.

Percentage >60%
for presale
↓
51—60%

41—50%

31—40%

21—30%

11—20%

1—10%

Number
of projects 0 50 100 150
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 47

Median of Raised Funds Based on The

Percentage of Tokens for Pre-sale
HOW TO READ The graph shows the median distributions of
THE GRAPH
raised funds based on what percentage of all of
the token supply was dedicated to presale and/or
private rounds.

Percentage 1—10%
for presale
↓
11—20%

21—30%

31—40%

41—50%

51—60%

>60%

Median
raised funds 0 $1 M $2 M $2.5 M
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 48

Number of Successful ICOs by Percentage

of Tokens Allocated to the Pre-Sale
HOW TO READ Projects, in which less than 10% of tokens
THE GRAPH
were allocated to the private and pre-sale
stages, were unsuccessful in 46% of the cases.
Percentage >60%
for presale
↓

51—60%

41—50%

31—40%

21—30%

11—20%

1—10%

Number of successful projects →

Number of unsuccessful projects → 20 40 60 80

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 49

Token Sale Platforms

HOW TO READ The initial emission of tokens in 95% of cases occurs
THE GRAPH
on the basis of the Ethereum platform, at this stage
of the ecosystem development, Ethereum continues
to monopolize the market due to easy listing on
DEX (most tokens are built on Ethereum or the 0x
protocol.). 2nd-quarter projects also used platforms
such as NEO, NEM, Stellar, and Waves.

95%
3.7%
Other

Ethereum

1.3%
Waves
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 50

Advantages and Disadvantages for the Platforms

Name Strengths Weaknesses

ETHEREUM Globally accepted benchmark: Ethereum is Excessive flexibility: Research by the

the biggest blockchain infrastructure at National University of Singapore shows
the moment, and Solidity is a well-known, that a significant portion of Ethereum
smart contract language with armies of smart contracts can be manipulated by
contributors. third parties, creating a means for hacker
attacks.
Solidity: Solidity is one of a few Turing-
complete languages for smart contracts. Low TPS rate: 15 transactions per second.
ASIC resistant: In Ethash (Ethereum mining Inefficient consensus mechanism: Ethereum
algorithm) the most costly operations are still uses a Proof-of-Work consensus
input/output, making ASIC meaningless as mechanism that is considered to be
regular PCs are optimized for this. energy-inefficient and expensive. The cost
of one transaction is approximately $0.3.
Universal solution: Ethereum is a universal
solution, suitable for sharing any type of
value.
Can host ICOs.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 51

Advantages and Disadvantages for the Platforms

Name Strengths Weaknesses
NEO Efficiency: NEO uses a dBFT consensus Divisibility issue: NEO native tokens are
protocol which is considered to be more not divisible and can only be assigned an
efficient than traditional PoW or PoS. integer value.
Smart contract language: Smart contracts China-focused: The majority of information
are currently written in C# and Java. about the platform, including tech-case
Transition to Python is planned. discussions, is in Chinese, making the
platform less friendly for non-Chinese
Speed: NEO’s tps rate is 1000 transactions
users.
per second.
Poor decentralization: Since dBFT implies
Built-in KYC functionality.
the community selecting bookkeepers
Can host ICOs. who validate transactions, the level of
decentralization decreases.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 52

Advantages and Disadvantages for the Platforms

Name Strengths Weaknesses
NEM Compatibility: The NEM blockchain is Low speed: At the moment, the project has
compatible with the current IT business artificially lowered its tps to 2 transactions
infrastructure. per second.
Private chain speed: Using the Catapult Customized for corporations: NEM primarily
engine created by NEM, companies can focuses on corporations, not on traditional
increase the speed up to 4,000 tps on their ICO projects.
private chains.
Security: NEM has increased security
through the implementation of a Proof-
of-Importance consensus mechanism and
two-tier architecture.
Easy to use: NEM is an API-driven platform,
making project development on NEM
relatively easy.
Can host ICOs.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 53

Advantages and Disadvantages for the Platforms

Name Strengths Weaknesses
STELLAR Tailored for finance: Stellar was created to Smart contracts are less flexible than that
facilitate financial transactions using its of Ethereum.
own consensus mechanism based on the
Smart contract execution is expensive.
Federated Byzantine Agreement.
Fast performance: 1,000+ transactions per
second; one block is created every 3—5
seconds.
Low transaction fee: $0.00001
Increased security: Stellar uses
multisignature verification in its smart
contracts.
Can host ICOs.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 54

Advantages and Disadvantages for the Platforms

Name Strengths Weaknesses
WAVES Speed: Tps rate is up to 100 due to the Lower flexibility: Non-Turing-complete
Waves-NG consensus protocol, can smart contracts are less flexible compared
potentially reach 1,000. to Turing-complete due to the nature of
their programming language.
Smart contract uses Turing-incomplete
language: Turing incompleteness Poor adoption: Waves has not hosted any
guarantees the predictability of how smart- big ICOs yet, therefore more technical
contracts will behave after initiation. issues may be discovered as the platform
gains new users.
User-friendly: Waves is considered to be the
easiest platform to use for ICO and smart
contract writing.
Has imbedded DEX: On the Waves DEX,
all Waves-based tokens can be easily
exchanged, lowering the transaction cost
for value transition between blockchains.
Can host ICOs.

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 55

Types of Products
Created by Projects
About 90% of projects stage their ICOs with In order to be in the top 10 by the number of
the intention of creating a Dapp on a third- users per day, a marketplace, or a game, should
party blockchain. Infrastructure projects still be used by at least 100 people. Additionally, 495
form a small fraction of the total number Dapps registered on DappRadar by 10.07.18
of projects. It is important to note that, (78% of the total number) did not have a single
according to DappRadar, as of July 10, 2018, user per day.
the highest number of users per day was in
the exchanges category (#1 – IDEX – 2,209
users / 24h). 3.8%
Custom blockchain

6.3%
Protocol

89.9%
Dapp

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 56

Distribution of Successful Projects

by Product Type
53% of all Dapp-based ICOs were not
successful. Unsuccessful campaigns
by category: protocol — 21%; custom
blockchain — 32%.

Product Custom blockchain

type
↓

Dapp

Protocol

Number of successful projects →

0 50 Number of unsuccessful projects → 300

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 57

Projects Disclosing Information

on Funds Allocation
41,2% of projects do not provide any details
on the planned allocation of funds for ICO
participants (We have only looked at the
presence of percentage distribution of received
funding).
48% of these projects launched their ICO
campaigns without any development proposals.

58.8%
Disclosed
41.2%
Not disclosed

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 58

Projects with a Fixed Token Emission

Only 5% of 2nd quarter projects did not limit
the emission of their own tokens.

5.3%
Not Fixed

94.7%
Fixed

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 59

Distribution of Projects Based on Whether

the Project is Open-source or not
64% of closed-source projects did not submit
anything to the community other than ideas
at the time of their ICOs.

63.9%
Closed-source
36.1%
Open-source

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 60

Distribution of Successful Projects Based

on Whether the Code is Open-Source or not
57% of projects that either did not have
GitHub repositories, or had closed ones, were
unsuccessful in terms of raised funds. As for
the projects with an open-source code, 37% of
them were unsuccessful.

Opensource Open-source
code
↓

Closed-source

Number of Projects, Successful → 100 200

Number of Projects, Unsuccessful →

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 61

Distribution of Projects Based

on the Company’s Age
The majority of companies (73%) staging
their ICO have existed for less than a year.
The average age of projects is 1 year, and the
73,29%
median age is 8 months.

15,62%

↑ 7,95%
Number
of projects 3,15%

Company life More than 4 years 3—4 Years 1—2 Years Less than year
period
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 62

Distribution of Projects Based

on the Number of Developers
80% of all projects staging their ICOs had
fewer than 5 developers on their teams.
Only 2% of the projects had more than 10 80,21%
developers on board.

17,39%

↑
Number
of projects 2,4%

Number >10 5—10 <5

of developers
→
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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 63

Distribution of Projects with and without

an Airdrop
ICO airdrops were conducted by 35.4% of all
projects in the 2nd quarter.

64.6%
No
35.4%
Yes

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ICO Market Research Q2 2018 64

Have a question or want to learn

more about market dynamics?
Contact us.
Primary Contact:
Mikhail Mironov
Head of Partnerships
+31 6 83624781
[email protected]
Amsterdam

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