The nascent primary market of Security Token Offerings

Abstract

The years 2017 and 2018 saw an influx of ventures raising substantial amounts of money through initial coin offerings (ICOs). The Ethereum blockchain greatly facilitated the spectacular surge of ICOs, even though utility tokens and cryptocurrencies are not primarily meant for raising external capital for start-up firms. Now that the ICO market bubble ebbed away security token offerings (STOs) have emerged, allowing investment in regulated securities recorded on a blockchain. Blockchain Capital paved the way with its crowd sale of equity tokens on a blockchain in April 2017. In August 2018, tZERO successfully completed the largest STO thus far, raising USD 134 million. More recently, in April 2019, Societe Generale SFH issued and settled covered bonds worth over USD 100 million as a security token. While the literature has succeeded in providing many insights about the gains and losses in both ICO and cryptocurrency markets, much less is known about this nascent STO market.