About 800 of the cryptocurrency projects that had cropped up throughout the world during the last one and half years are now effectively dead which have forced analysts and investors to begin comparing the current digital coin boom and the dotcom bubble which tormented the markets in the early 2000s.
Initial coin offering (ICO) is the process of the creation of new digital tokens. This process is essentially the launching of a new coin by a startup which can be bought by investors. Unlike the traditional initial public offering (IPO), investors in ICOs’ do not get any equity stake in the company but can make use of the coins that they purchase to buy products of the coin issuing company. but the major reason that people buy ICOs because of their cheap price at the beginning which has the chance of going up in the future.
The digital coin market has seen an explosion of ICOs. In 2017 $3.8 billion had bene raise by companies via ICOs. According to CoinSchedule, a website that tracks the market, in 2018, that number had already gone up to $11.9 billion.
But many hundreds of such [projects have also shut down because either they were scams or the product simply did not materialize. All the cryptocurrencies that fall into those categories is listed in a website called Dead Coins. It has so far identified 800 such coins that it considers dead. These coins trade less than 1 per cent and are hence worthless.
The year has also been tough for bitcoin which is the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization or value. Ever since its record high near $20,000 last year, the price of the digital currency has dropped by almost 70 per cent, according to data from CoinDesk. The sharp fall of the Nasdaq is now being compared with the sharp fall of the cryptocurrency. It is also being compared to the crashing of some of the companies during the dotcom boom.
Following the hacking of two South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, the cryptocurrency has assumed a bearish sentiment.
Because of the fact that there is a lot of scope for frauds, therefore investors and analysts consider ICOs to be incredibly risky investments. A scam on an ICO called Giza was reported in the media earlier this year. $2 million of investor money was laundered in the scandal by the fake start-up. Despite this, many analysts still see a future for ICOs because it is considered an alternative to initial public offerings and venture capital funding.
While there is a lot of market pressure on cryptocurrencies, there is also a lot of optimism that regulators may provide a more favorable look towards them which has the potential to boost participation in the market.
The optimism was evident in the voice of Arthur Hayes, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, when he said that by the end of the year, the value of bitcoin could reach $50,000.
(Source:www.cnbc.com)
Initial coin offering (ICO) is the process of the creation of new digital tokens. This process is essentially the launching of a new coin by a startup which can be bought by investors. Unlike the traditional initial public offering (IPO), investors in ICOs’ do not get any equity stake in the company but can make use of the coins that they purchase to buy products of the coin issuing company. but the major reason that people buy ICOs because of their cheap price at the beginning which has the chance of going up in the future.
The digital coin market has seen an explosion of ICOs. In 2017 $3.8 billion had bene raise by companies via ICOs. According to CoinSchedule, a website that tracks the market, in 2018, that number had already gone up to $11.9 billion.
But many hundreds of such [projects have also shut down because either they were scams or the product simply did not materialize. All the cryptocurrencies that fall into those categories is listed in a website called Dead Coins. It has so far identified 800 such coins that it considers dead. These coins trade less than 1 per cent and are hence worthless.
The year has also been tough for bitcoin which is the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization or value. Ever since its record high near $20,000 last year, the price of the digital currency has dropped by almost 70 per cent, according to data from CoinDesk. The sharp fall of the Nasdaq is now being compared with the sharp fall of the cryptocurrency. It is also being compared to the crashing of some of the companies during the dotcom boom.
Following the hacking of two South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, the cryptocurrency has assumed a bearish sentiment.
Because of the fact that there is a lot of scope for frauds, therefore investors and analysts consider ICOs to be incredibly risky investments. A scam on an ICO called Giza was reported in the media earlier this year. $2 million of investor money was laundered in the scandal by the fake start-up. Despite this, many analysts still see a future for ICOs because it is considered an alternative to initial public offerings and venture capital funding.
While there is a lot of market pressure on cryptocurrencies, there is also a lot of optimism that regulators may provide a more favorable look towards them which has the potential to boost participation in the market.
The optimism was evident in the voice of Arthur Hayes, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, when he said that by the end of the year, the value of bitcoin could reach $50,000.
(Source:www.cnbc.com)