Cryptocurrencies
Initial Coin Offerings

Initial Coin Offerings Seen Topping Early Stage Venture Funding ... Digital FX venture adviser says $560 million raised in June

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Initial Coin Offerings Seen Topping Early Stage Venture Funding

Digital FX venture adviser says $560 million raised in June

Early stage companies seen receiving less funding on average

While people talk about a bubble in funding for private startups, one might want to take a look at the surge in funding for cryptocurrencies first.

According to William Mougayar, a Toronto-based venture adviser and investor, funding in initial coin offerings, a means of crowdfunding the release of a new cryptocurrency, has now exceeded that of early stage venture capital funding.

“Ever since the Bancor and Gnosis ICOs kicked the door open on creativity and boldness in ICO campaigns, the appetite for ICOs has been steadily increasing,” Mougayar wrote in a posting on Startup Management. “I sensed that June was a pivotal month that may be setting the tone for the next months to come, so I spent a good part of the past several days trying to tally-up exactly how much was raised.”

Based on his research, Mougayar said more than $560 million flowed into the space in June alone. For comparison, angel and seed stage investments only see roughly $550 million invested each month on average.

A recent report from CB Insights and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP shows that $8.7 billion flowed into Internet-related startups in the first half of 2017, and across all sectors roughly 50 percent of investment was in the seed and early stage firms, he said. So taking half of $8.7 billion, cutting it in half once again and then dividing by six to get a per month number gives you roughly $360 million, below the amount of ICO funding seen, Mougayar said.

Investors in digital currencies have been experiencing more volatility than in traditional markets as of late. Digital coins are currently worth around $86 billion, down from a market capitalization of $100 billion last week and $115 billion on June 14, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies, is down about 20 percent from its peak of $3,000, reached June 12.

“Will this become a sustainable trend remains to be seen,” Mougayar wrote. “In early February, I predicted that 1,000 ICOs would raise $1 billion by the end of 2017. $1 billion sounded outrageous at that time, but we have already eclipsed it on a year-to-date basis,” he concluded.