In our chart highlighting Bitcoin’s epic journey to $10,000, we also noted that 2017 was a landmark year for the Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a method used to raise initial funds for development and marketing of new cryptocurrencies or tokens.
ICOs have become so popular that well over 90% of total funds raised through this mechanism came from this year alone.
While it’s hard to put this sudden ICO explosion in context, we think today’s animation does the phenomenon sufficient justice. Coming from Max Galka at Elementus.io, today’s animation shows a timeline of ICOs and funds raised since early 2014.
In an added dimension, each ICO is also classified based on geographic region. The colorful fireworks that happen throughout 2017 help to make it clear that we are indeed living in the year of the ICO.
Year of the ICO
Despite bans in China and South Korea, there is no shortage of fervor for new cryptocurrencies or tokens.
In their short history, there have been three ICOs that raised over $200 million – and six more that surpassed the $100 million mark.
Here is a breakdown of the nine biggest ICOs so far. Note that eight of them took place in 2017:
| Name | Location | ICO Proceeds | ICO Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filecoin | North America | $257 million | 2017 |
| Tezos | Europe | $236 million | 2017 |
| EOS | North America | $200 million | 2017 |
| Paragon | North America | $183 million | 2017 |
| The DAO | Stateless/Unknown | $168 million | 2016 |
| Bancor | Middle East | $153 million | 2017 |
| Polkadot | Europe | $121 million | 2017 |
| QASH | Asia | $112 million | 2017 |
| Status | Europe | $109 million | 2017 |
It’s worth mentioning that with the price for bitcoins and ether both rising fast, that these ICOs have actually raised even more capital than initially shown. That’s because the dollar amounts above are based on the value of bitcoins and ether at the time of the raise.
With billions in capital going into new projects, investors and speculators are anxiously waiting to see which coin or token will be the next Ethereum to take the market by storm.
Article by Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist
