Success factors of initial coin offerings

Abstract

Abstract This study furthers recent research on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in understanding the set of characteristics that drive ICO performance and reduce information asymmetry. Using data on 166 ICOs and more than 300,000 contribution addresses that sent funds to ICOs in Bitcoins or in Ether between 2013 and 2017, we examined the effect of ICO characteristics on ICO performance. We found that three boundary conditions predict ICO fundraising amount, number of investors, hard cap achievement and token ranking. These are registering ICO and publishing project’s code on GitHub, obtaining VC or Business angel financing before the campaign or during presale, and finally, publishing the whitepaper before the campaign’s start. Other factors such as serial investors, presale of tokens, bonus sales and funders' ownership share explain ICO performance. We offer implications for ICO investors and policymakers.