Primary coin placements are becoming a real alternative to co-financing. The bulk of the funds came in two projects - Telegram, which collected 1,7 billion, and EOS, which attracted more than 4 billion. Here is a list of the five largest ICOs at the moment.
EOS - $ 4,1 billion
A startup registered in the Cayman Islands, Block.one, completed ICO 1 in June, collecting over 4 billion dollars. Block.one raised capital for its blockchain project through auctions. Every 23 hours 2 million EOS tokens are distributed among the highest bidders. Since 26 June 2017, more than 900 million tokens have been sold, and they were not sold for dollars, but for airs. In total, investors have invested in the project more than 7,12 million esters. With an aggregate market capitalization of 4,5 billion and daily trading volume of 466 million, EOS ranks fifth in market capitalization.
In June of this year, the main network was launched (mainnet), and the ERC-20 format tokens were replaced by the project's own coins. To receive them, holders had to register the addresses of their ERC tokens before June 2. 150 million tokens (15%) were placed on accounts and were able to take part in the voting, giving the network an official start on June 15th. The long-awaited event was accompanied by a series of technical failures, freezing of accounts and large-scale proceedings.
The EOS operating system allows developers to create decentralized applications (dApp), by analogy with Ethereum, completely ready for commercial use. This led to the suggestion that EOS could surpass Ethereum and become the most popular platform for developing dApp. In August, EOS topped the cryptocurrency rating compiled by the China Information Industry Development Center. The second place was taken by the ether. The index based in May evaluates cryptocurrencies depending on their innovations, applications and technological potential.
Telegram - $ 1,7 billion
The Telegram team is developing the so-called Telegram Open Network (TON) - “a fast, secure and scalable blockchain and network project”. It will be based on GRAM's own digital tokens. The messenger attracted 1,7 billion dollars (by 850 million in two rounds) from private investors, with the share of accredited investors in the first round being 81% and in the second round 84%. During the first stage of the ICO, held in February, 2,25 billion tokens (45% of the total) were sold at a price of $ 0,38 per share. The minimum investment for the round was 20 million dollars.
During the second stage, the tokens were placed at $ 1,33, and the minimum investment was reduced to 1 million. The tokens sold will later be exchanged for GRAM in the proportion of 1: 1. ICO Telegram could well become the largest, but 3 in May, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company refused to publicly offer. The reasons for this decision are unclear; Some analysts believe that in this way the company was trying to avoid possible friction with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. On the other hand, Telegram could attract a sufficient amount on the basis of private sales, so the need for a public ICO disappeared. Whatever the reason for this decision, the reality is that ordinary people will not be able to buy GRAM tokens until they appear on the stock exchanges.
Telegram is a messaging service with an emphasis on speed and security. The developers claim that the messenger is designed "for anyone who wants to quickly and securely exchange messages and calls." In March of this year, the number of monthly active users of the application exceeded 200 million. On this occasion, the founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said:
“This is an incredible number by any measure. If Telegram were a country, it would be the sixth largest population in the world. ”
26 July, the company introduced Telegram Passport - a single authorization method for services that require personal identification. The new technology will store personal documents of users in the decentralized cloud - passports, driver's licenses, account information, etc. It is enough to upload documents once. After that, they can be shared with services that require the identification of the user (financial, government, etc.). The TON network is scheduled to launch in 2019. It will allow transferring funds between Telegram users, selling goods and services.
Dragon - $ 320 million
During ICO, Dragon Corp. attracted 320 million dollars (from the planned 500 million) to build a floating casino in Macau, the Asian capital of gambling. Despite rumors of links with the local mafia and business relations with Cambridge Analytica, Dragon's primary placement of coins turned out to be one of the most successful. It was reported that the famous gangster Van Kuok-koy, nicknamed "Broken tooth", who served 14 years in prison for frauds with loans and money laundering, attended the opening ceremony of the ICO. However, the director general of Dragon Corp, Chris Ahmad, hastened to assure the public that the perpetrator was in no way connected with the project.
Dragon Coin is an ERC-20 service token. It is designed for VIP-players in Macau, and its value is due to the success of the gambling business. In November, 2017-th Ahmad announced that 20% of the funds raised would go to the construction of the 300-millionth marine casino Dragon Pearl Hotel. The remaining 80% will be paid by Norway. According to Ahmad, this Scandinavian country has a wealth of experience in the construction of offshore platforms due to the development of oil and gas in the North Sea. Brova Idea, the hotel’s design company, hopes to complete construction by 2020.
Hdac - $ 258 million
At the end of 2017, South Korean technology company Hdac attracted 258 million dollars to develop "the world's first contract and payment IoT platform based on the blockchain."
One of the investors of the project is Hyundai Corporation. The platform allows IoT devices to quickly and efficiently communicate with each other, transfer data, perform authentication and micropayments. The project site states: “The technological philosophy behind Hdac is designed to significantly improve the M2M transaction environment: all operations should be easy and trouble-free. In addition, we believe that our technology will allow us to promote reasonable consumption and precise management of all communications and utility costs. ”
Filecoin - $ 257 million
ICO Filecoin became the largest in 2017. Investors have invested over $ 257 million in the company. This includes $ 52 million raised from leading venture capital funds such as Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Digital Currency Group.
Filecoin aims to create a decentralized cloud storage network using the so-called “InterPlanetary File System, IPFS). It allows you to safely record and store data in a peer-to-peer network.