Public Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are Dead

I am sad to say it, but Public ICO sales are dead. The days of a gas war to get to the token contract first are long over. Whitelist limits are almost all but gone with limits of 0.1 Ethereum (ETH) per person. Airdrops have become seemingly more popular in 2018, for example, ONT (Ontology Network) airdropping to NEO holders. ONT isn’t the only airdropped project; many more recent ICOs have switched to airdrops at the last moment before the crowd sale. While it may seem that some companies are afraid of taking average investors’ money, it may also be from private investors filling more than the cap that was originally reserved for the general public.

Venture Capital money has been fighting tooth and nail to get into ICO pre-sales, pushing the general public out of the crowdsale. Could this be a good thing? Yes, it could be, as an avenue for self-regulating the ICO space and appeasing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, it may be detrimental for average investors and the potential to get in at the ground floor of a promising and innovative company This space is rapidly evolving and every day brings new uncertainties. If you would have told me about this frenzy pre-2016, I would have told you that you were crazy. For the time being, however, public ICOs are dead.