So, who is behind the soaring income of ICO?
According to industry sources, in this digital token financing game, the first "big players" are project distribution teams, private equity institutions, big names in currency circles and chain circles, and ICO exchanges. Sifang undertakes most of the quotas for an ICO project, followed by various players and investors.
"Because it is necessary to ensure the success of the issuance and benefit sharing, it is also conducive to raising the issue price. These big players have considerable bitcoin and Ethereum in their hands. They not only participate in ICO themselves, but also involve mining business. In other words, the bitcoin and ethereum owned by these institutions are not out of nothing, and many mining machines are digging up the remaining amount of bitcoin and ethereum day and night. " The source said.
"Don't participate in ICO now, the risk is already great. The investment bubble of digital tokens in the secondary market has emerged, and some ICO projects have stopped trading recently." On August 30, when asked if the founder of an ICO crowdfunding platform could invest in the market, the founder said frankly.
On the evening of August 30th, the second largest ICO platform in China issued a notice in official website, saying: In order to prevent risks, ICOINFO will take the initiative to suspend all ICO business from now on, and conduct business according to the policy norms after the regulatory policies of relevant departments are promulgated. Users who successfully participate in the project can obtain tokens as scheduled according to the established progress of the corresponding project party, and transfer the obtained tokens after the time allowed by the project party; On September 5 10:00, the coin refund function was launched on time according to the original development schedule, and then the coin can be refunded normally; During the suspension of business, the recharge function will be suspended. Please don't recharge your ICOINFO account.
A digital CEO and blockchain angel investor pointed out that ICO mainly has four risks: First, the risk of the project sponsor. The most obvious risks are fraud, illegal fund-raising and absconding with money; Second, beware of the trap of excessive digital monetization. When more and more mixed projects come in, the company keeps issuing digital currency, which leads to excessive digital monetization and abnormal "inflation"; Third, be alert to the risks of legal supervision. The hourglass of supervision has been turned upside down. Once the final control policy is implemented, it may make people sigh. Fourth, be wary of technology "takenism". At this stage, most ICO projects lack substantive innovation, and most of them adopt takenism, simply reorganizing the advantages or characteristics of several mainstream blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and even many of them are limited to the ideas of the white paper.
It is noteworthy that, following the ICO investment risk warning issued by Beijing Internet Finance Association, on August 30th, China Internet Finance Association also issued a risk warning, saying that all kinds of projects raised in the name of ICO have increased rapidly in China recently, which has disrupted the social and economic order and formed a greater risk hidden danger. Investors should judge calmly, act cautiously and bear the investment risks themselves. The day before, it was reported that the CSRC was consulting some blockchain enterprises on ICO projects to study how to introduce normative measures.
"ICO can only be guided and cannot be prohibited. The reason is that ICO is a global investment phenomenon, not unique to China. Bitcoin and Ethereum can be circulated globally, which means ICO can issue global transactions globally. Regulators can close domestic ICOs, but they cannot prevent investors from participating in global market transactions. Many foreign investors are also participating in domestic ICOs. Unless the Internet is closed, it is not a long-term solution to ban or close it by administrative means. " Liang Ming pointed out.