Influence of ICOs on the Crypto Economy
One of the scorching crypto topics which has even penetrated mainstream media portals and got people talking are ICOs. Towards the beginning of the year of 2017 with Bitcoin facing some alarming scaling problems, technologists all over the industry got to work collectively. Following the fearful ups and downs of the first quarter of the year, investors cared to pay special attention to Altcoins, a set of interesting alternative cryptocurrencies - hence the name. The aforementioned altcoins were destined to be discovered, hence why when the lot of them ascended into oblivion in terms of market capitalization and value, external investors started flooding in. Overall, bias opinions on the crypto market ruled news portals for some months, but investors, enthusiasts and community members can collectively agree that some ICOs were rushed to say the least, resulting in a bubble-like event within the crypto market.
Following the initial implementation of SegWit, the cryptocurrency market was virtually saved in June. While SegWit (Segregated Witness) increased the block size limit due to the removal of signature data, more transaction were part of each chain, resulting in a partial recovery of the market as a whole. Additionally, newly established Bitcoin Cash liquidity following this year’s hard fork has certainly had a positive recovery influence on the market, bringing the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization to hitting an all time high of over $160bn USD.
What Happens Now?
It’s safe to say that Altcoins have reached their individual places within the market. During uncontrollable times earlier this year, the market as a whole experienced strongly correlating shifts, leaving us all in awe and unpredictability. Mainstream attention to Bitcoin especially has built up a strongly negative trend over the years, however took a shift following the start of all time highs just after the new year. As a result of each out of proportion market spike, generic coverage of the cryptocurrency market as a whole became the new relevant news to the world. Starting with mainstream news portals, social media platforms caught on rather quickly, aiding the steadying trend of market bubbles all year long.
As a result of a new inflow of external investors, the cryptocurrency market experienced an altered flow of behaviour from it’s advocates. In the wake of humongous market spikes of new all time highs, appearing retracements were inevitable, resulting in an almost bearish market for the majority of cryptocurrencies.
The New World of ICOs
According to Tokendata.io, there are 135 ICOs planned to reach completion in September, along with 235 planned ICOs in total. With varying market capitalizations, these ICOs rely on and draw liquidity directly from the still newly established crypto economy. Consequently, companies behind these ICOs have heavily implemented themselves within the crypto community by carefully thought out PR processes with clever, often manipulative marketing. Based on official token distribution statistics of past ICOs, an approximate minimum of 10% of crowdfund total sums are spent directly on marketing, these are incredibly serious calculations.
A succesful ICO has tremendous amounts of building blocks behind in, starting with technology as well as an attuned, reliable team - we often forget awareness campaigns in terms of marketing. Without appropriate measures taken to introduce public awareness, an ICO of any magnitude is bound to fail. While the notion of ‘tax’ is not often heard of within the crypto world, outrageously high banner prices of up to $100,000 certainly act as a type of industry tax. Costs as such have significant impact on ICO strategies, directly hitting the market due to the large number of ICOs taking place.
Another split set of opinions have surfaced, regarding the size and contribution amounts of ICOs generally. In terms of a high contribution amount, multiple PR agents within the industry class anything under $20m USD way below average or low. Logically thinking, a project with such numbers would be unable to have adequate liquidity to strike an interest with significant Venture Capital funds, let alone keep a healthy presence on current cryptocurrency exchanges.
As an example, let’s look at 2016. Back in January at the start of last year, Ethereum boasted a market capitalization of approximately $72m USD. A brilliant example of successful market manipulation is Stratis - having raised just over $600,000 in September 2016, the blockchain solution provider’s coin now boasts a total market capitalization of more than $500m. Additionally, ARK is another great example. Following a $998,000 USD crowdfund, ARK now makes up over $325m USD of the cryptocurrency economy as a whole. Numbers as such are growing in significance, bringing attention to the obvious ease of market manipulation.
In opposition, monstrous contributions are equally as unhealthy for the crypto economy. The growing demand for competent developers with adequate skills in Solidity and Ethereum related programming languages has blown salaries out of proportion. ICOs now rely on gargantuan contribution amounts to fund their technical teams, often earning multiple millions of dollars. A startup of any magnitude should keep one of their core goals to ensure profitability for their investors, otherwise the funding economy of businesses is at a denoting risk.
A Stable Crypto Economy
Correspondingly, the market expects new investors to turn up as part of the ongoing trend, ensuring a stable equalization of the value. Part of the issue with ICOs and current processes is the lack of general appeal, not to mention absence of new ideas. By mass education and further resource, general appeal could be touched, even achieved - the masses are currently unaware, confused and therefore not willing to invest in dozens of ventures showing up daily. Potential enthusiasts external of the crypto community deserve to be educated prior the using cryptocurrencies.
An ongoing lack of transparency within the ICO band has raised formal alarms, going as far as official SEC warnings worldwide. Concerns with vague ICOs include lack of public information, absence of reports filed, absence of financial and operational status and minimal to no technical information on the product itself. Funding of selected crypto projects has therefore become a judicious process.
While there are plenty of solutions if thought of collectively, the crypto ecosystem and economy can be stabilized by an improved, relevant funding strategy. The Deep is willing to contribute 4000 Ethers to develop the first of it’s kind and currently one of the most convoluted adventures within crypto history.