(BlockBar) The initial coin offerings (ICO) sector is showing acceleration due to positive investor sentiment. This has been spurred by the recent crypto market rally.
Based on the data, the report notes that the success rate of ICOs has increased and apparently it is reflecting a rise in projects’ quality. 85% of total funds raised upto May reportedly belong to projects with a high (3-3.5) rating — as compared with 68% in April.
The report also says that data for the total funds raised in May, so far, has been swamped by the reported $1 billion initial exchange offering (IEO) from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex — bringing the total amount of funds raised via token sales this month to roughly $1.075 billion.
According to the reports IEOs from Economi and Poseidon raised around $10.5 million and 2.4 million respectively. The sum of all funds collected from the top 5 IEOs so far this month hit almost $15.5 million. It is to be noted that it excludes Bitfinex.
The major offering of Bitfinex has resulted in May being the month with the highest total funds raised so far in 2019. In historical data of ICObench from May 2018 to May 21, 2019, it is clearly shown that only May and June 2018 saw higher levels of total funds raised via token sales.
To see In terms of geographical distribution, the British Virgin Islands took the lead in terms of total funds raised which is followed by the Cayman Islands. The United Kingdom alone contributed the highest number of ICOs with 9 only projects and yet scoring the 7th place in terms of total funds.
Bitfinex unveiled its own native exchange utility token LEO, in mid-May, for which the exchange had supposedly raised the $1 billion in a private IEO and removing the need for a public offering. Also this month, together with spin-off Ethfinex, Bitfinex has launched an IEO platform.
Even after so many apparent success, the exchange continues to challenge court proceedings ignited by the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) recent accusations against it. It is to be considered that the NYAG alleges that the firm lost $850 million in user deposits and had secretly covered up the shortfall using funds from its sister firm stablecoin operator called Tether.
