Initial coin offerings (ICOs): Why do they succeed?

Recent literature has addressed initial coin offering (ICO) projects, which are an innovative form of venture financing through cryptocurrencies using blockchain technology. Many features of ICOs remain unexplored, leaving much room for additional research, including the success factors of ICO projects. We investigate the success of ICO projects, with our main purpose being to identify factors that influence a project’s outcome. Following a literature review, from which several potential variables were collected, we used a database comprising 428 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector to regress several econometric models. We confirmed the impacts of several variables and obtained particularly valuable results concerning project and campaign variables. We confirmed the importance of a well-structured and informative whitepaper. The proximity to certain markets with high availability of financial and human capital is also an important determinant of the success of an ICO. We also confirm the strong dependency on cryptocurrency and the impact of cryptocurrency valuations on the success of a project. Furthermore, we confirm the importance of social media in ICO projects, as well as the importance of human capital characteristics. Our research contributes to the ICO literature by capturing most of the success factors previously identified and testing their impacts based on a large database. The current research contributes to the building of systems theory and signaling theory by adapting their frameworks to the ICO environment. Our results are also important for regulators, as ICOs are mainly unregulated and have vast future potential, and for investors, who can benefit from our analysis and use it in their due diligence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Success determinants of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

Fintech companies have been surging taking advantage of the current technological developments and have been challenging traditional incumbents. Disruptive ventures financed by cryptocurrencies are one of the main topics related to technological developments, capable of completely eliminating the need for a third-party intervenient and reducing the gap between investors and promoters. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the main impacts that fintech companies have on the business models of traditional banking/financial institutions and to focus on the success factors of disruptive and highly technological Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) projects, particularly, on the human capital factors. In order to do that, the thesis is divided into three main studies, each one of them focused on a particular topic. The methods used in this thesis are mixed as a qualitative approach was adopted through a systematic literature review, and a quantitative approach was performed by building several econometric models. This thesis concludes that fintechs cannot be considered complete substitutes to the traditional services yet. Nevertheless, they are posing incumbents challenges and exposing the weaknesses of their business models. The banking/financial institutions need to urgently adapt their business models in order to remain competitive, and most of them already accepted this challenge. The ICO projects also present a disruption and a step forward in the democratization of the financial investments. This study identified a wide range of success factors influencing the outcome of an ICO project. The success factors might be divided into categories according to their scope: (i) project; (ii) campaign; (iii) social networks; (iv) human capital. It is concluded that several factors have a real impact in the outcome of the projects, such as, the existence of financing thresholds, the quality of the whitepaper, the existence of a secondary market and bonus schemes, the price of the tokens, the price of cryptocurrencies, the good management of social networks, the promoters’ geographic location, their networks, the size of the teams, external ratings attributed to the project and to the team. In terms of theoretical contributions, this study added a contribution to the still scarce literature on ICO projects and to two theories, namely, the signaling theory and Human Capital Theory (HCT). The managerial implications concern mainly the assessment of the quality of a project by the investors and the need for regulation by supervisors.As empresas fintech surgiram tomando partido dos atuais desenvolvimentos tecnológicos tendo desafiado os atuais atores do mercado. Projetos disruptivos financiados nomeadamente por cripto moedas são um dos tópicos relacionados com o desenvolvimento tecnológico e capazes de eliminar a necessidade para o envolvimento de terceiros na mediação financeira reduzindo assim o hiato entre investidores e promotores. O propósito desta tese é o de identificar os principais impactos que as empresas fintech têm nos modelos de negócio das empresas financeiras já estabelecidos no mercado. Terá um foco especial nos fatores de sucesso dos projetos baseados na blockchain denominados Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), em particular, os fatores relacionados com o capital humano. Assim, a tese está dividida em três estudos principais com focos diferentes. A metodologia usada nesta tese é de métodos mistos: uma metodologia qualitativa foi usada na revisão sistemática da literatura; e uma metodologia quantitativa foi usada na construção e estimação de modelos econométricos, tendo por base microdados de 428 projetos de ICOs do setor bancário. Esta tese conclui que as fintechs não podem ser ainda consideradas substitutos dos serviços financeiros tradicionais. Contudo, estas colocam desafios e expõem as fraquezas dos modelos de negócio tradicionais. A indústria financeira necessita de adaptar urgentemente os seus modelos de negócio para se manter competitiva. Este desafio já foi aceite por várias empresas. Os ICOs causam disrupção e são um grande passo para a democratização dos investimentos financeiros. Este estudo identificou um conjunto alargado de fatores de sucesso que influenciam o resultado final destes projetos. Os fatores podem agrupar-se em categorias: (i) projeto; (ii) campanha; (iii) redes sociais; (iv) capital humano. Os fatores que esta tese comprovou contribuírem para o sucesso de um projeto são os seguintes: pré-existência de limites de financiamento; a qualidade do whitepaper; a existência de um mercado secundário e esquema de bonificações; o preço dos tokens; o preço das cripto moedas; a boa gestão de redes sociais; a localização geográfica e a rede de contactos dos promotores; o tamanho das equipas; ratings externos atribuídos ao projeto e à equipa.No que diz respeito às contribuições teóricas, esta tese contribuiu para a escassa literatura no tema dos ICOs e para duas teorias, nomeadamente a siganling theory e Human Capital Theory (HCT). As contribuições práticas deste estudo relacionam-se com a avaliação da qualidade do projeto e a necessidade premente dos reguladores tomarem medidas nestes mercados

Success Factors of Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects

The Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) concept has been an emerging topic in the literature as well as their success factors. We will build up on the current literature and explore several success factors divided into categories, namely, project, campaign, social network and team’s characteristics. The preliminary econometric model developed was built on data from a database composed of 428 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector which allowed us to collect a diverse range of independent variables identified recurring to the existent literature. After proceeding to a literature review, we will analyze the results of the econometric model allowing us to identify the relevant variables and their impact on project’s success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Initial Coin Offering: A Taxonomy Based Approach to Explore the Field

New ventures and private investors are showing increasing interest in innovative forms of fundraising. ICO is the abbreviation of Initial Coin Offering and it represents an innovation in entrepreneurial finance (Fish, 2019; Block, Colombo, Cumming, & Vismara, 2018). However, no study has ever developed a taxonomy of academic and non-academic discourse related to this type of innovative financial tool. This paper aims to fill this gap by developing a taxonomy to investigate and categorize papers that discuss Initial Coin Offering phenomenon. This study is developed using a mixed methodology. The first stage of the research protocol regards the dataset definition and description. In the second stage we adopted the taxonomy process developed by Nickerson et al. (2012). The purpose of the present work is to develop a taxonomy with a set of dimensions each consisting of a set of characteristics that describes the objects in a specific study. We identified a set of seven dimensions: research approach, research design, data collection, philosophical view, focus, research issue, ICO phase. In the taxonomy process we assigned a single value to every dimension. In the last section, we summarize some preliminary results, providing conclusions and discussions for future research

ICObench ratings and Initial Coin Offerings’ success

Initial coin offerings (ICOs)–commonly referred to as token sales or token offerings– are assisted by blockchain technology. This financing tool helps entrepreneurs finance early-stage ventures on a decentralized, global scale. Researchers have previously called for more research to be carried out vis-à-vis the role of information intermediaries in the ICO ecosystem. The main goal of this study was to analyze the correlation between ICO ratings and the financing success of ICOs. As a result, secondary microdata on 5,581 ICOs were collected from the ICObench website. The results reveal that ICO ratings issued by third parties have a positive influence on the fundraising campaign of these offerings. ICO ratings thus appear to function as an effective signal to buyers and to reduce information asymmetry between sellers and investors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

FinTech Projects and initial coin offerings: A research note

We explore the determinants of success of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) defined as whether the ICO was successful in raising the funds. We look at financial and technical information disclosed by the ICO as well as the information disclosed by third parties about the ICO and the level of legal protection granted. We discover that even if both hard information (financial and technical) and soft information (social media and legal protection) matter, nevertheless a more relevant role is played by the technical information. Based on our analysis, we identify areas that need further investigation in the context of ICOs

The effect of lockup and persuasion on online investment decisions: an experimental study in ICOs

Many firms use social media (SM) to solicit online investments. In this study, we examine the interaction between SM attributes and online-investment attributes to determine how this interaction shapes users’ investment decisions. Specifically, we investigate initial coin offerings (ICOs) as an application domain of distributed ledger technology for peer-to-peer investment. We use signaling theory to develop a context-specific explanation for how the interplay of persuasion signals found in SM and technology-enforced lockups shapes individuals’ ICO investment decisions. To evaluate this interplay, we conducted a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with 473 participants. The results show that when an investment does not require a technology-enforced lockup, persuasion signals encourage investments in ICOs; however, when an investment requires a technology-enforced lockup, persuasion signals do not affect investments in ICOs. Furthermore, our analyses suggest that combining a technology-enforced lockup and persuasion signals reduces the ICO’s plausibility. This is the first study to investigate how the willingness to invest in ICOs is influenced by the relationship between technology-enforced lockups and persuasion signals. The findings have practical implications for individuals attempting to make sound decisions on ICO investments, policymakers regulating online investments, and firms seeking to attract investors

Kako su aktivnosti na Twitteru povezane s ponašanjem najpoznatijih kriptovaluta? Dokazi iz analize društvenih mreža i analize sentimenta

Cryptocurrencies have embraced Twitter as a major channel of communication. Employing social network analysis and sentiment analysis, this study investigates the Twitter-mediated communication behaviors among cryptocurrencies. This study determines whether a significant association exists between cryptocurrencies\u27 Twitter networks and their credit scores. Data were drawn from the Twitter pages of several top cryptocurrencies. The results indicate that reply–mention networks had the densest structure, that the following–follower network structure was correlated with the reply–mention structure, and that the reply–mention and co–tweet networks were positively correlated. The results also indicate that cryptocurrencies\u27 active networking strategies affected their credit scores and more importantly, that cryptocurrencies frequently linked with fellow currencies tended to have high credit scores.Kriptovalute su prigrlile Twitter kao glavni kanal komunikacije kojim prenose novosti i grade odnose s (potencijalnim) ulagačima i kupcima. Služeći se analizom društvenih mreža i analizom sentimenta, rad istražuje Twitterom posredovano komunikacijsko ponašanje kriptovaluta proučavanjem učestalosti tvitova te njihovih struktura: following-follower, reply-mention i co-tweet. Ocjene tržišta često znatno utječu i na proizvođače (tj. programere) i na potrošače (tj. vlasnike kriptovaluta). Stoga ovo istraživanje utvrđuje postoji li povezanost između Twitterovih mreža kriptovaluta i njihovih kreditnih ocjena. Podaci su prikupljeni na Twitterovim stranicama niza najpoznatijih kriptovaluta. Rezultati pokazuju da su reply-mention mreže imale najgušću strukturu, da je mrežna struktura following-follower povezana sa strukturom reply-mention i da su reply-mention i co-tweet mreže pozitivno povezane. Rezultati također upućuju na to da su aktivne mrežne strategije kriptovaluta utjecale na njihove kreditne ocjene i, što je još važnije, da kriptovalute koje se češće povezuju sa srodnim valutama obično imaju visoke kreditne ocjene

Fear sells: On the sentiment deceptions and fundraising success of initial coin offerings

Retrieving information from an intensive hand-collected whitepaper data library covering 5,033 ICOs launched before 2020, we analyze the determinants of ICO success as measured by the amount of raised funding. We assess the sentiment and readability in ICO whitepapers in addition to other information disclosures. Whereas we do not find any evidence for that the riskiness of ICO projects would lower the predicted amount of raised funding, our results strongly suggest that ICO investors are largely guided by emotions when making investment decisions. Contrary to earlier literature, we find a weak association between quality signals of whitepapers and its success.© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed