ICO market 2018 vs 2017: Trends, capitalization, localization, industries, success rate

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The ICO market data provided by ICObench available, based on the announcements of the project, which were recorded in the ICObench database, which includes since August 2015 5.100 ICOs.

In the year of 2018 were 2.284 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) has been carried out, and the investor could choose, on average, between 482 Token sales openings per day. In the year 2017, the corresponding values were only 966 or 91 ICOs.

The economic results, however, are less impressive: The total increase in the year 2018, amounted to almost EUR 10 billion, compared with slightly more than € 8.7 billion in 2017, representing a growth of only 13 percent.

it is A balance of the General Trends of the ICO market in 2018, in fact, a two-edged sword. Since the ICOs introduced in March 2018, nearly 1.53 billion euros, the first half of the year, the highest growth point since the beginning of the upward trend that began in the late spring of 2017, although the data for June 2017 represent an anomaly, as seen below. On the other hand, the final months of the year saw a radical downward trend. In November of 2018, for example, you provided only 0.31 billion Euro and represent the worst result since may, 2917.

Both Trends reflect the volatility of the entire crypto market in the year 2018, particularly in the case of Ether, as Ethereum with 84,29 percent of the projects is the platform on which most of the ICOs have been issued. The opposite of Stellar, with a 1.25 per cent and NEO are available with 0.55 percent.

Ether its historical maximum reached on may 13. January 2018 (almost 1,186 euros), while the lowest level of the year between the 14. 15. December (around 73 euros, a loss of about 94 percent) has been reached. The ICO-the market seems to react slightly volatile on the Trends of the underlying crypto-currency. In view of the recorded medium, the distance of the projects from March and November 2018, at about 79 percent.

in the medium and long term, the ICOs at the end of the year, funds collected are still far above the level of the beginning of 2017. Even if only the first 15 days will be considered in December, is to recognize that in January 2017, the from ICOs funds raised amounted to about 1.8 percent of the last month of the year in 2018, available resources, while the Ether-capitalisation of about 9 per cent of the total capital, the eighth of December 2018.

More ICOs, less resource -

The number of the new ICOs that were listed by ICObench in the course of the year, followed by the already shown in the Trend, before the funds collected were considered: In March 2018, the majority of new projects have been included in the database (528), while the number of incoming ICOs declined since the end of the summer, easily, the lowest level in October was as there were 213 new entries. In this case, but the decline is less pronounced than the decrease of the accumulated capital. Therefore, many ICOs compete still ever-decreasing resources.

as a result, the average amount a single ICO in the year 2018, had collected, in comparison to the previous year, with 10.10 million Euro lower than in the previous year (21,36 million Euro in 2017). In addition, the size differences in the actual results of each of the ICO remain relevant , even if the divergence between the of the ICOs applied to capital amounts has decreased, in particular, with an increase in the average size of the smallest ICOs: The less successful the ICO, which ended in 2017 with a positive result (more than 1 Euro), brought about 370 Euro, the worst result of 2018 was around 670 Euro.

Even more important, that the margin between the ICOs, which can be viewed on the Basis of the collected funds as a medium to large in size, has declined from 1.30 million Euro to 35 million Euro in the year 2018. In the previous year, the margin between 1.22 million Euro to 39.5 million Euro.

The deviation from the average values is higher in the case of the projects which are in the highest Position, i.e., the 5 percent of ICOs, which reach the largest amount of financing. In this case, the distribution of data by 2017, the profit of a single project, the new Blockchain EOS, distorted, which ended in June of this year, their one-year ICO, and almost 3,68 billion Euro earned. To date, this represents the biggest ICO in history. Aside from EOS the best Performer achieved by 2017 226 million euros, while the best result achieved in 2018 504 million Euro.

In the year 2018, accounted for the top five percent of the studied sample (41 ICOs) around 31.7 per cent of all funds collected. Under this leading group of 10 ICOs reached 87 million Euro or more, the equivalent of 16 percent of the total available on the market capital. In 2017, the same percentage (21 ICOs) accounted for more than 63 percent of all the money. These data, however, to 21.6%, if the EOS value is not included in the sample.

ICOs wide (a little more) in the world,

In the year 2018, the ICO advocates to build their headquarters in a rather small number of countries: the end of the year, the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom, the countries which, since 2015, the majority of ICOs were established. These three countries were also the home for most of the completed ICOs 2018. Last year, Britain overtook Russia in the overall ranking, while Germany reached the eighth place and Canada and the Netherlands are outdated, the latter left the Top 10.

looking at the entire sample of ICOs, in their white papers on an accurate localization, decreased, the geographical concentration of the 2017 to 2018: Today, the ten countries with the largest number of ICO headquarters for 59 per cent of since 2015 ongoing projects. This value was previously set at around 75 percent.

The concentration is very high, as the economic indicators. ICOs, which are hosted in the Top-10 countries account for approximately 78 percent of the collected capital, and only the projects, which is headquartered in the United States established, accounted for almost 32 percent dit is capital of. In 2017, these values were even higher: 90 percent, or 61 percent.

in light of the economic data on new projects, which ended in the year 2018, the dynamics between the countries, similar to the Ranking of the hosted ICOs. The rise in Estonia (from 11. Place 2017 on the seventh place a year later) and Lithuania (from the 21. on the 14. Space) shows the dynamics of Eastern Europe. Still, as a part of the Old continent considered, rose Gibraltar to four positions (from 15. on the 11. Place), thanks to the activism of the local administrators and businesses to promote the British overseas territory as the new safe haven for Blockchain-based companies.

In Asia, the decline in China (from the 10. on the 12. Space) through the from Hong Kong acquired greater rank, the on 12. on the ninth place went to, offset. The increasing weight of some Caribbean tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, which has risen from the ninth to the sixth Position, and the British virgin Islands — from Position 29 to the rank of eight — the importance of the ICO in relation to regulations and taxes.

ICO to industries: A strong core and emerging applications

In view of the distribution of the ICOs in the year 2018, the projects supported are the industries that most of the investments attracted, the sectors, the closer to the development of the core area of the Blockchain-business: platforms, the interaction between the user networks allow for smart contracts, Internet-based products and other types of infrastructures to an IT-network environment. This accounted for around 30 percent of the in the course of the year, collected from the capital.

On the other hand, the Fintech sector, which includes both Bank as well as financial investments, 3.86 billion Euro accumulated, and new block chains have attracted investments of more than 3,68 billion Euro. Many of the planned 1.111 new crypto have not completed currencies ICOs, however, with economic success.

Other industries, the achieved in the year 2018, the positive results were in the IT sector, positioned and included such companies, which had to do with Software, Big Data or artificial intelligence. Some of the relevant investments, however, were focused on applications in other sectors, such as business-oriented services, with 2.1 billion euros (7.4 percent), and entertainment and media industries at 1.84 billion euros (6.4 percent).

The presence of other sectors that are further away from the IT or High - Tech industry, is of little importance: On the manufacturing industry around 1.3 percent, including the production of electronic devices accounted for, while projects in companies, based on education, or art, or about 1 percent of the waves.

A comparison with the industry distribution of 2017 is due to the superior weight of the ICO of the EOS is quite difficult, because in that year, 40.6 percent of the new Blockchain-companies accounted for by different sectors. It is likely, however, that we can see a stable growth trend with the core industries as well as an increasing role of some of the application areas, which are closer to the end users.

The expectations with the reality

the sum of all The Hardcaps (HC), set for 2018, the end of Token sales, was five times higher than that of the ICOs in the year 2017, the target set, namely a 72.8 billion euros, compared with almost 13,15 billion euros.

Even more, the increase in the planned Soft-Cap-goals (SC). In the year 2018, this was 12 times the total value in 2017, i.e. EUR 12 billion compared to 0.96 billion euros in the previous year. As a result, it was found in the year 2018, the end of which projects a narrower spacing between HC and SC as in the year 2017: The cumulative HC exceeded the lower threshold by six times, while the ratio in 2017, was more than twice as high. There, the HC was 13 times the cumulative SCs.

Despite the rise in expectations, the market did not react to such optimistic Numbers. The proposed HC-value for 2018 was, in fact, to 173 percent above the actual average market capitalization of Ether during the year. You look at the actual funds raised, the ICOs reached the end of 2018, approximately 23.7 percent of the Ethereum Ecosystem available average value, while the value was for 2017, with about 47.8 percent.

In view of the total funds raised from the ICOs to the year 2018, both the Soft Cap and the Hard Cap rate in your white papers, were only achieved slightly more than 11 percent of the cumulative planned HC, while 45.5 percent of the cumulative SC have been achieved. In the year 2017, the ICOs reached 17 percent of the Hard Cap Sets and 97 percent of the planned Soft-Cap.

The increasing number of projects competed in the year 2018 to the capital, constituted a strong barrier to Entry, since only 43.3 percent of the ICOs were able to collect at least 1 Euro (compared with 57.6 percent in 2017). The Performance of the turnover of the Token in the year 2018, the had passed the first step, however, was significantly better than in 2017, because 19.2 percent of the projects achieved at least your Soft-Cap-border, compared with 9.6 percent in the previous year.

in Spite of the larger number of ICOs, which came in the course of the year on the market, is the distance between the total number of token sales, which ended in 2018, and the few who have reached a hard limit, rather similar to the one in 2017, reported the success of the funnel. Only in the last year, 6 percent of the ICOs were able to reach their hard limit, in 2017, it was 6.7 percent.

The year of 2018 saw the culmination of the rally of the ICO market starting in mid-2017, and a subsequent decreasing Phase is not completed at the time of publication of this article for a long time. Little more than five years, Mastercoin was the first project, the ICO-funded. The ICO market is, therefore, too young to interpret the data from the previous year as a first cycle that could repeat itself in the future in a larger scale (such as the many "deaths" of Bitcoin demonstrated), or as a Signal for a dramatic change in the market's prospects.

Indeed, more and more critics blame the reliability of the ICOs, or of some of their typical promotional Tools, while the attention is now turning to alternative funding is directed possibilities for the crypto industry, such as Security Token services (STOs), or other traditional investment vehicles.

However the image makes the end of 2018 hope of a recovery in the prospects of the ICOs: Even after a dramatic Downsizing of the market is still greater than at the beginning of the upward trend in 2017, and the fact that the concentration of both in localization as well as in industries decreases, it may be a Signal for a wider acceptance.

In the years 2017/18 enabled "ICO-Bonanza" the creation or development of many companies and offered to the organisers of Token sales of a wide range of high quality services. These range from strategic consulting to Marketing, from legal advice to Start-up incubators. The industry is, therefore, more complex, more robust, and more structured than a year ago. This could be a decisive advantage for the development of the next sustainable wave of Growth of the ICO market.