The ICO market had shown tremendous growth in 2017 and has almost doubled in a year by 2018. The significant inclination of investors toward ICO’s has been very encouraging. The rollercoaster journey of the ICO market has faced many ups and downs. We are presenting some of the lesser known facts and highlights of ICO market performance for last quarter as reported by ICO Rating.

Major Highlights

• Total funding: Second quarter of 2018 witnessed total funding of $8,359,976,282 compared to $3,331,005,381 which accounts to 60% increase in total investment. The ICO market has more than doubled in the last one year, in which 827 projects have managed to collect investment of about $11,690,981,663 in 2018 itself. The total investment is 10 times the total investment begged by ICOs in Q1 of 2017.
• Unsuccessful projects: These numbers might show the surge in the number of ICOs and an increase in investment, but the ugly truth is that most of these projects could not raise more than $100,000. Even though it is attributed as a poor show by ICO where only 13% of ICOs were able to raise $100,000 in 2017, the total raise has soared to above 50% in 2018. Q2 saw that only 204 projects could collect more than $100,000. The major set back was the increase in the number of unsuccessful projects from 50% in 2017 to 55% in 2018. 
• Listed projects: The other grief of ICO market is that only 7% out of 827 projects have been listed on exchanges. The fact that only 61 projects were able to be listed with ICOs exchanges is startling. Adding to it, the average time for listing with exchanges increased by 6 days. Moreover, the number of projects listed in the shortest time interval after completion of ICO decreased by 22%.
• Bumpy or smooth roads for ICOs: The instability of ICOs is very evident with the ups and down in the number of successful projects noted in different months in 2018. In May the number of successful projects doubled the analyzed number in January 2018, while following month i.e. June witnessed fall in a number of successful ICO projects.
• Condition of ICOs at idea stage: The optimists of ICO world have still not lost hope. About 10.83% of ICOs wanted to woo investors at idea stage itself. The projects at idea stage received the least funding showing the lack of trust of investors.
• Top gainers in Q2: Out of the successful projects in Q2 of 2018, the top 2 ICOs (Flashmoni and Pumapay) have raised $50million. The average time taken by successful ICOs to raise the amount was about 63 days. Only 3 exception projects – Fantom, DCC, and Orbs were able to gather most of their funds on day 1.
• Dominant type of ICOs: The projects offering service characteristic tokens decreased by 24%, while the ones offering security tokens decreased by 8%. The projects offering utility tokens increased by impressive 32%.
• Effect of already-operating businesses: 15% of the ongoing projects are the initiatives of already-operating businesses. But the beauty of ICOs is that the fundraising is unaffected by the presence or absence of working businesses.
• Geography and maximum gainers: The majority of projects initiated in Q2 was concentrated in Europe while the maximum fund-raising was capitalized in North America. The investment increased by 20% in Asia but the number of projects decreased, unfortunately.
• The upsurge in a number of investors: The ICO business saw 7871 investors and the numbers are increasing continuously. 

Future of ICOs: Dark or Bright?

We wish for new heights and innovations in this advanced technology to provide a better future for one and all.

Though the future of all ICOs can’t be predicted as bright or golden but yes! Many of these might become the start of tomorrow’s world. The idea should be to support the underlying technology and prototypes with good potential. The future of technology should not be compromised on any grounds because we all are aware of how it is going to influence and rule our world.