The 7 biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised managed to obtain funds well over $100 million each in the last couple of years, as the market of Initial Coin Offerings gained more ground. But before we get to actually discussing the biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised, we should explain what ICOs are, how they work, and how they are different from other ways to fund a startup.
Cryptocurrencies have been popular only in the last couple of years, as the Bitcoin saw its price surge past $1,000 and other currencies, like Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, have made their way into the market. The advancement of cryptocurrencies also spawned an entire industry of companies that operate with cryptocurrencies or with blockchain technology, which has already made its way into the big tech, with giants like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and International Business Machine Corp. (NYSE:IBM) engaged in developing blockchain-related products.
As blockchain technology started to gain traction, more startups in the field emerged, and while some resorted to conventional ways of finding capital, like issuing equity and finding investors, others decided to appeal directly to users of cryptocurrencies through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).
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ICOs represent a capital-raising process, in which startups sell “utility tokens” that offer investors access to a blockchain-based software service. One example of these tokens is the Ether, which is used on the blockchain-based platform Ethereum. The Ethereum network incurs certain costs associated with blockchain transactions and the costs are paid with Ether coins. In addition, Ether is a cryptocurrency, which is traded on exchanges and can, therefore be converted into other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or fiat money. Ethereum was one of the first ICOs and it raised $18 million, based on $0.40 per Ether, in 2014. The project was successful, and the value of Ether surged to over $330, giving the cryptocurrency a total market cap of $1.07 billion. See how Ethereum compares with Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Given that the value of cryptocurrencies have grown dramatically over the last couple of year, with the total market cap of all 1270 or so cryptocurrencies amounting to over $207.50 billion, the ICO market has registered a substantial growth, attracting investors with great ROI figures. For example, Ethereum surged by more than 100-fold since the ICO. Stratis increased by over 49,000% and Ark’s ROI amounts to 31,000%.
While ICOs are still unregulated, authorities in several countries have taken notice of ICOs recently. China’s central bank banned ICOs altogether in September, while the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement in July, saying that ICOs are subject to securities laws and they can be potentially fraudulent .
Nevertheless, ICOs are booming as there are currently over 350 offerings either completed or still in progress and the total amount that companies have managed to raise in ICOs amounts to $1.72 billion. With this in mind, let’s take a look at 7 biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised based on Coinschedule data.
7. Status Network
Total Amount Raised: $100 million
Status Network is an open-source messaging platform and mobile browser that interacts with decentralized applications on the Ethereum Network. Status aims to turn the mobile device into a light client node on the Ethereum Network, which gives the user access to the entire ecosystem within the network. Status aimed to issue tokens worth 26,500 ETH at a rate of 3333 tokens per 1 ETH, but the Ethereum network quickly got congested and the developers couldn’t issue tokens for everyone. In this way, Status Network managed to raise just around $100 million and its tokens currently have a total value of $97.32 million.
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6. Bancor
Total Amount Raised: $153.0 million
Next in line in the list of 7 biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised is Bancor, developed by Bancor Foundation. Bancor Foundation raised $153 million worth of Ether during its ICO in June 2017. Bancor is a cryptocurrency that can incorporate multiple coins (like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple). Instead of eexchanges, Bancor tokens are developed to be matched among themselves using smart contracts that are coded in the tokens. The ICO received a lot of hype after it was reported that well-known venture capitalist Tim Draper invested in the project, which sparked so much interest from investors that the ethereum network became congested.
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5. The DAO
Total Amount Raised: $168.0 million
The DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) conducted its ICO in May 2016 and it attracted 14% of all ether coins issued at the time. The DAO aimed to offer a decentralized business model on the Ethereum blockchain and wanted to create a sort of an investment fund, where each contributor would be able to vote on where to invest. However, a month after the ICO, the DAO was hacked and $50 million worth of Ether was stolen. To recover the money, the Ethereum community wanted to change the blockchain, which required a majority of computers to agree to a software upgrade. However, the move, known as a hard fork, was received as controversial by the community and in turn, the heist led to a fork in Ethereum, which resulted in two separate active cryptocurrencies, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. Following the hack, the DAO was delisted from several major exchanges and prompted an investigation by the US SEC.
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4. Paragon
Total Amount Raised: $183.16 million
On the fourth spot among 7 biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised is Paragon, which wants to bring blockchain technology to the cannabis community. The developers behind the project want to standardize the economic ecosystem of cannabis using the distributed ledger, which can store information transparently. The record of cannabis’ journey from seed to grower to dispensary should help further legalize it around the world. Paragon raised $183.16 million, but its current market cap stands at around $27.32 million.
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3. EOS
Total Amount Raised: $185.0 million
EOS was developed by block.one, which conducted an ICO in July 2017. Block.one aims to create a blockchain network comparable to Ethereum, which will be used to automate processes, develop applications and monitor assets, offering multi-directional scaling of DApps (decentralized applications). EOS currently has a total value of $766.97 million based on 473.23 million tokens in circulation. The developers planned to release 1.0 billion tokens in several stages.
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2. Tezos
Total Amount Raised: $232.32 million
Tezos is a self-amending cryptoledger, which represents an individual blockchain (not built on Ethereum or other blockchains) that has a built-in consensus mechanism. Tezos’ protocol can evolve and incorporate innovation without the risk of hard forks. The updates will be rolled out automatically, which should eliminate conflicts about the upgrades that other blockchains faced (Ethereum, Bitcoin, and others, which had to split into two cryptocurrencies).
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1. Filecoin
Total Amount Raised: $257.0 million
The largest ICO in the list of the biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised is Filecoin. Filecoin is a blockchain-based data storage network that conducted its ICO, which was only available to accredited investors, in August. The decentralized storage network uses peer-to-peer InterPlanetary File System, or IFPS, to store data. Users can earn money by providing free hard drive storage space. Out of $257 million that Filecoin raised in the ICO, $200 million came from accredited investors.Filecoin is backed by big names like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capotal and Union Square Ventures.
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These are the 7 biggest ICOs ranked by amount raised. These ICOs alongside many others attracted a lot of interest from investors and many of the ICOs actually generated substantial ROI for their initial backers. The success of the ICOs and their popularity makes one wonder whether ICOs will be able to attract more big investors, who will see cryptocurrency tokens as a new asset to invest in.
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