ICOs are Hot and 2018 has Already Beaten 2017. PwC & Crypto Valley Report Covers The Biggest ICOs and Countries with Most Traction

ICOs are still hot. The second half of last year was crazy and ICOs became really popular. This year they are even more popular and the total amount raised and the number of ICOs this year has already surpassed 2017.

In collaboration with Crypto Valley (Zug), PwC published a report about the ICO market and some interesting stats are included.

The Top 15 Biggest ICOs

Although not all public ICOs, this is the top 15 so far:

EOS and Telegram obviously stand out with their $1 billion+ ICOs. Crazy amounts! 6 of the top 15 ICOs are registered in Switzerland. I guess that says something about the regulatory environment there. 4 of the top 15 are blockchain infrastructure projects. Good, because we need those basics first! Also, FinTech is quite popular with 5 out the 15 projects focusing on it.

ICO Countries

ICOs are global, but some countries have a more preferable regulatory environment for ICO registration.

Tax havens the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands are popular and the biggest ICOs are registered there (EOS, Telegram and Dragon). In terms of the number of ICOs registered the top 3 includes the UK, the USA and Singapore. Compared to 2017, Estonia, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland are becoming relatively more popular places for ICO registration.

Key Take-aways

The key take-aways from this according to the report are:

“USA remains a leading ICO destination, reinforced by clear and firm regulatory requirements (e.g. KYC). Within Europe, Switzerland stands out as the ICO capital, but in 2018, UK has gained terrain in terms of volume and numbers. Across Asia, Singapore is the main ICO hub, followed by Hong Kong. Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands rank among top ICO countries volume-wise, as they hosted Unicorn ICOs EOS (USD 4.1bn) and Telegram (USD 1.7 bn). Other countries not known for being large financial markets also appear among top ICO countries (e.g. Estonia, Lithuania, Israel). Dormant ICOs: In 2017, many planned ICOs did not happen in the end or were not further publicly documented or communicated.”

The report tends to connect ‘ICO hub’ and ‘country of registration’. This implies a relatively high blockchain industry activity in certain countries. I don’t agree with this. Country of registration of the ICO is not a proxy for how active the industry is. I for instance doubt that Estonia has more active investors and developers than Russia. I also doubt that there are more blockchain meetups in the Cayman Islands than in Israel or Japan. They should have used a different word since a ‘hub’ is seen by most people as a central place of activity and people coming together.

Also, technically, the USA does not remain the leading ICO destination, but Singapore and the UK are. And they listed the USA twice in the Leading ICO countries in 2017 table. It seems like they are really pushing the USA ;-)

All in all, always interesting to see these kind of stats though. Gives us a good idea on the money involved and developments compared to 6-12 months ago.

According to you, what stands out in the report?

Sources:

• Full report: https://cryptovalley.swiss/wp-content/uploads/20180628_PwC-S-CVA-ICO-Report_EN.pdf

---

---> 👍🏼 Follow me for regular updates on my cryptocurrency portfolio, crypto related articles and inspiring articles about personal time & life management.
---> 👍🏼 Resteems and upvotes are appreciated ;-)

---

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, trader or developer. I am just a blockchain & cryptocurrencies enthusiast. Make sure you do your own research, draw your own conclusions and do not invest any money that you cannot afford to lose.