The Block’s analyst Larry Cermak declared Initial Exchange Offerings dead, pointing out the concept’s bleak statistics for 2019.
IEOs are still dwarfed by the sums collected via ICOs back in the day. The entirety of the funds collected via IEOs over the only active period in the first half of 2019, which is estimated to be around $1.5–1.6 billion, is smaller than just one single ICO worth 4$ billion. Nevertheless, the model was expected to become the new go-to means of funding, which doesn’t involve conceptual death. How come?
Just last year, the PWC’s 5th ICO/STO Report noted that the development of the IEO model “has been strongly accelerating in terms of completed offerings and funding volume.” According to the paper, in the first five months of 2019, companies raised over $1.5 billion, although two-thirds of the total came from Bitfinex’s fundraising campaign.
The uptrend didn’t last, as Mr. Cermak’s research suggests.
Cermak’s analysis of IEO campaigns on several major crypto-exchanges has shown that only Binance had a positive return on investment. All others had substantial losses.
Cermak also posted information about average returns for particular campaigns. Unsurprisingly, the numbers are predominantly negative. Only 4 projects in the provided data snapshot show positive returns against USD price.
The analyst argues that the data provided are likely a sign of the concept’s death.
Nonetheless, it might be a little too soon to put the IEO concept into the grave.
forklog.media reached out to Alexander Temerev, CEO of Reactivity, and Pavlo Skoroplyas, author, cryptographer, crypto-trader, and miner for an expert opinion on the matter. Here’s their take on the problem.
https://forklog.media/ieo-declared-dead-but-dont-be-too-quick-to-bury-it/