ICOs Staged A Comeback – Here’s Who’s Making Money as Old Fundraising Model Revives
Here is the rewritten article in Markdown format:
Crypto Fundraising Model Resurfaces, Quietly Reviving ICOs
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have undergone significant changes since their peak in 2018. The fundraising model that defined crypto’s wildest boom may have appeared to be over after a series of regulatory crackdowns and market downturns.
However, a new generation of crypto projects is quietly reinventing the ICO concept, hinting at a revival few saw coming. New launches like Yield Basis and Monad are pulling investors back in, prompting questions about what this means for the future of ICOs, airdrops, and fundraising models
The ICO Era
When blockchains were still a novel concept and the crypto community was in its infancy, there were relatively few projects seeking to raise money. However, as mainstream attention increased, blockchain development began to snowball, accompanied by the fundraising activity required to sustain it.
From just $222 million in 2016, total ICO volume ballooned to around $14 billion in 2018. At the height of the frenzy, the EOS token sale raised $4.2 billion, eclipsing the three largest venture capital rounds of that year combined.
ICO Maturity and Decline
When the market soured in late 2018, many ICO participants saw the value of their assets plummet. This prompted regulatory scrutiny and ensuing crackdowns on fundraising activities from retail investors. From 2018 onward, new crypto projects increasingly turned to venture capital funding in place of public sales.
Rather than selling coins to retail investors, platforms like Solana (SOL) favored private deals with a select group of institutions. Meanwhile, the rise of airdrops and launchpads provided alternative distribution pathways for memecoins and DeFi tokens.
The Regulatory Environment
In the face of regulatory uncertainty, U.S. exchanges initially chose not to get involved in this new trend, preferring instead to focus on private sales with institutional counterparties. However, past crackdowns are now in the rearview as a few major exchange firms have decided to jump into the fray with a fresh set eyes, Kraken launching its first public token sale in October.
Kraken Launch Debuts With Yield Basis
For its debut offering, Kraken selected YieldBasis (YB), the utility token for a new DeFi yield protocol. Developed by Curve founder Michael Egorov, this project builds upon similar principles from Curve’s algorithmic foundation to generate yields without impermanent loss.
Egorov explained in an interview how he was inspired to create a more robust offering:
"It occurred to me that […] if you use a similar algorithm to keep your leverage constant" via a BTC-stablecoin pool, “you create a position which is priced like BTC, without impermanent loss,” he stated.
ICOs Staged A Comeback – Here’s Who’s Making Money as Old Fundraising Model Revives
Here is the rewritten article in Markdown format:
Crypto Fundraising Model Resurfaces, Quietly Reviving ICOs
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have undergone significant changes since their peak in 2018. The fundraising model that defined crypto’s wildest boom may have appeared to be over after a series of regulatory crackdowns and market downturns.
However, a new generation of crypto projects is quietly reinventing the ICO concept, hinting at a revival few saw coming. New launches like Yield Basis and Monad are pulling investors back in, prompting questions about what this means for the future of ICOs, airdrops, and fundraising models
The ICO Era
When blockchains were still a novel concept and the crypto community was in its infancy, there were relatively few projects seeking to raise money. However, as mainstream attention increased, blockchain development began to snowball, accompanied by the fundraising activity required to sustain it.
From just $222 million in 2016, total ICO volume ballooned to around $14 billion in 2018. At the height of the frenzy, the EOS token sale raised $4.2 billion, eclipsing the three largest venture capital rounds of that year combined.
ICO Maturity and Decline
When the market soured in late 2018, many ICO participants saw the value of their assets plummet. This prompted regulatory scrutiny and ensuing crackdowns on fundraising activities from retail investors. From 2018 onward, new crypto projects increasingly turned to venture capital funding in place of public sales.
Rather than selling coins to retail investors, platforms like Solana (SOL) favored private deals with a select group of institutions. Meanwhile, the rise of airdrops and launchpads provided alternative distribution pathways for memecoins and DeFi tokens.
The Regulatory Environment
In the face of regulatory uncertainty, U.S. exchanges initially chose not to get involved in this new trend, preferring instead to focus on private sales with institutional counterparties. However, past crackdowns are now in the rearview as a few major exchange firms have decided to jump into the fray with a fresh set eyes, Kraken launching its first public token sale in October.
Kraken Launch Debuts With Yield Basis
For its debut offering, Kraken selected YieldBasis (YB), the utility token for a new DeFi yield protocol. Developed by Curve founder Michael Egorov, this project builds upon similar principles from Curve’s algorithmic foundation to generate yields without impermanent loss.
Egorov explained in an interview how he was inspired to create a more robust offering:
"It occurred to me that […] if you use a similar algorithm to keep your leverage constant" via a BTC-stablecoin pool, “you create a position which is priced like BTC, without impermanent loss,” he stated.