ICO News: Investments Soar Past the $12 Billion Mark as 2018 Becomes the Year of ICOs

If 2017 was the year for buying crypto coins, 2018 has become the year of investing in crypto projects. According to the latest ICO news, funding for blockchain-based projects has soared in the first half of the year. Detailed in a report by Autonomous Research LLP, the amount of money raised through initial coin offerings (ICOs) during H1 of 2018 is $12 billion. Already, that’s $5 billion more than the total amount raised in 2017.

Given the recent rise in crypto investments, fewer people are now asking what is ICO investing and, instead, asking how they can get in on the act. As per the report, Block.one and Telegram have topped the 2018 ICO list in terms of interest. The former auctioned off its EOS tokens earlier in the year and raised $4 billion to fund the development of its Ethereum rivalling technology. As for the Telegram ICO, two funding rounds have seen the encrypted messaging platform raise $1.8 billion.

Beyond the two largest initial coin offerings of 2018, a host of other interesting projects have made this year’s ICO register. Buttrfly collected the CoinAgenda award in July for its work connecting influencers and major brands. Also making the ICO news in recent weeks is Kodak. After choosing Stellar as the basis for its DRM management token KodakCoin, the photography brand has been working to launch its first ICO.

Regulation Will Stop the Bubble from Bursting

With the number of investments already up, the positive momentum is expected to continue through until the end of 2018. However, what analysts will be most interested in is the level of interest in 2019. In 2017, price rises across the board looked almost unstoppable. However, as a new year dawned, the bubble burst and the market had to recalibrate itself. Assessing the current situation, there will be those that are wondering whether ICOs will suffer the same fate.

The current rate of growth isn’t stable, which suggests we could we heading for a dip in the coming months. However, unlike individual crypto projects, ICOs are in the midst of being regulated. As is often said, regulation is the key to mass-market adoption. Indeed, for cryptos to replace fiats, researchers at Imperial College London have stressed the importance of regulation. If this is true for coins, the same rules should apply to initial coin offerings. On this front, there have been a number of positive developments. The most significant could be the recent announcement by German exchange Stuttgart Börse. In a bid to capitalize on the new investment craze, the exchange is poised to launch an ICO platform. If this innovation proves successful, it will not only bolster the ICO register in Europe but serve as a model for other financial firms. The upshot of this could be a whole new system of regulated ICO platforms that, in turn, would stabilize the industry and help prevent any sudden crashes.