$185 million in 5 days: Block.one sets new ICO record with its EOS token
Blockchain startup Block.one announced this morning that it has raised $185 million in just five days of selling its EOS cryptocurrency token. That sum breaks the record Bancor set just a couple of weeks ago with its nearly $150 million raise.
Block.one’s goal is to bring blockchain to businesses. It claims its platform offers a level of scalability unprecedented in the blockchain world: It would be able to process millions of transactions per second with no transaction fees. “Block.one intends for the EOS.IO software to support distributed applications that have the same look and feel as existing web-based applications, but with all of the benefits of the blockchain – namely transparency, security, process integrity, speed and lower transaction costs,” according to the company’s press release.
Still, as a recent CoinDesk story points out, the company has had little to show for its claims so far, something that has become characteristic for many startups launching initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Block.one’s record-setting ICO comes amid a fresh surge in interest in blockchain technology and startups.
The lightning-fast, high-figure fundraises that blockchain startups have been pulling in lately has raised concerns in the blockchain community. Experts, such as William Mougayar, have warned that this strong short-term performance could very likely lead to poor long-term results.
Block.one set a long fundraising window — 341 days — in an attempt to counter this flash-raise phenomenon, the company said. It’s unclear whether that long window did anything to relax investor enthusiasm. So far the company has sold 20 percent of a total 1 billion EOS tokens being distributed.
Here’s how the company describes its strategy:
The distribution uses an innovative model of participation of the marker, creating what is designed to project a fair distribution of the marker Ethereum launched today. This extra time eliminates quick fun usually surrounding short sales marker, and allows the community enough time to learn about the EOS.Software I / o develop unit.one and to participate in the distribution of the tokens if they want.
EOS distribution token is also approaching auction, where in each period, each receives the same price. At the end of the period corresponding to the number of tokens of EOS for this period will be proportionally distributed among all authorized clients, based on the total of ETN contribution during this period.
CEO Brendan Blumer said he expects strong interest in the token to continue throughout the rest of the fundraising period.
Nice post and thank you for sharing.
That amount of cash for a small project is insanity