From the inventory of 10 projects, these projects were undoubtedly the most dazzling stars of that era, easily obtaining huge investments under the halo of celebrities. After 7 years, the projects that claimed to create the next Bitcoin and Ethereum have been replaced by a new batch of players.
Written by: Frank, PANews
In 2016, ICO raised 820,000 ETH for the project Golem Network. Recently, Golem Network has been frequently selling ETH and has attracted much attention. As of July 8th, it has sold a total of 36,000 ETH, worth about 114.5 million USD. Combining with the EOS, the founder of the company that created the largest ICO case in the industry, which still holds 140,000 bitcoins worth about 8 billion USD.
Investors suddenly discovered that those projects they eagerly invested in have disappeared, while the projects that held their coins have made a fortune. PANews has made an inventory of the asset status of the top 10 ICO projects from 2016 to 2017 and found that the return on investment of all the projects is lower than holding BTC and ETH.
Sirin Labs:
Raised 157 million USD, token market value only 70,000 USD
The project with the biggest contrast between the amount raised and the current situation is Sirin Labs. The project raised about 158 million USD through ICO in 2017. It became one of the star projects with the highest amount raised that year. The tokens issued by Sirin Labs are SRN, and its current market value is only 70,000 USD, with a 24-hour trading volume of only 8 USD.
Sirin Labs was the earliest company to target Web3 mobile phone products. As early as 2017, it raised 158 million USD through ICO with its blockchain smartphone Finney as a gimmick. In 2018, football player Messi endorsed this encrypted phone. However, the good times did not last long. In 2019, Sirin Labs was exposed for poor phone sales, laying off 25% of its employees, and owing factory wages. In 2021, Sirin Labs’ investors were sued for fraudulently using ICO and misappropriating more than 250 million USD.
Today, Sirin Labs’ social media accounts have not been updated for more than 3 years, and the comments section is filled with accusations of “fraud”.
EOS: The highest ICO created the richest Block.one
EOS created a peak of ICO fundraising that has yet to be surpassed. In 2017, with the star aura of BM and the endorsement of Li Xiaolai, EOS raised more than 4 billion USD, making it the project with the highest amount raised in the field of cryptocurrency ICOs.
The company behind EOS, Block.one, then converted all the raised ETH into BTC and held more than 164,000 BTC at one point, surpassing MicroStrategy as a BTC holder. According to the latest data, Block.one still holds more than 140,000 BTC, with a total value of over 8 billion USD.
In 2022, the EOS Foundation tried several times to use legal means to make Block.one return 4.1 billion USD and transform EOS into a DAO organization. In April of this year, the EOS Foundation attempted to launch a new token economics, but the market seems to have completely abandoned this former star of public chains, and its price has fallen by nearly 40% since April. Currently, the market value of EOS tokens is only 780 million USD, which is only one-tenth of the value of BTC held by Block.one.
Tezos: Token market value is less than the foundation’s assets
The public chain Tezos raised 232 million USD through ICO in 2017. Although it was rumored that the Tezos Foundation held 17,500 BTC, according to the Tezos Foundation’s report in March 2024, the organization currently holds BTC worth 295 million USD, which is equivalent to about 5,000 BTC at the BTC price at that time. However, Tezos raised a total of 65,681 BTC and 361,000 ETH during the ICO. The current value of these tokens is about 4.8 billion USD, while the total market value of Tezos tokens (TXZ) is only 740 million USD, which is only three times the amount raised and even less than the foundation’s 760 million USD assets.
Polkadot: Still holding 300,000 ETH unsold
Recently, the public chain Polkadot caused a lot of discussion due to its half-year financial report, with advertising expenses of 87 million USD and revenue of 1.1 million USD, which raised concerns in the community. It seems that the 87 million USD in advertising expenses is less of a concern than the topic raised by a financial report. As a star project in 2017, Polkadot raised 140 million USD in funding that year, raising over 429,000 ETH. According to on-chain data, the ICO smart contract address still holds 306,000 ETH, worth about 930 million USD. Therefore, concerns about Polkadot’s treasury seem unnecessary. These ETH tokens have not been sold since their initial acquisition.
Bancor: From well-known to ignored
The decentralized trading protocol Bancor raised about 390,000 ETH, worth over 150 million USD, in ICO in 2017, surpassing the fundraising amount of The DAO. The current value of these tokens is about 1.1 billion USD, while the market value of Bancor’s token BNT is only about 70 million USD. This result is obviously unacceptable for users who invested in it at that time.
Golem: Carefully managing assets and increasing holdings
Golem Network is an early ICO project. As early as 2016, Golem Network proposed the concept of a decentralized computing power market. By 2024, Golem Network became famous not for its forward-looking market deployment, but for its skillful asset management strategy. In 2016, Golem Network raised 820,000 ETH through ICO, second only to EOS in terms of raised ETH. Although the progress of Golem’s project has been lukewarm, the team did not sell ETH like other teams but made small and frequent transactions over the years. From the initial ICO value of 9 million USD to June 2019, the number of held tokens decreased to 369,000 ETH, but the value exceeded 100 million USD. Currently, the number of held tokens has dropped to 125,000 ETH, with a total value of 390 million USD. Benefiting from the growth of ETH prices, Golem’s assets have been increasing. However, those who invested 11 USD worth of ETH in Golem at that time might have mixed feelings.
TenX: Project team cashes out, market value only 1.64 million USD
The payment project TenX raised more than 80 million USD in 2017, totaling 245,832 ETH. However, it seems that the project team has little confidence in the crypto market and has started to sell most of the tokens through exchanges one month after the ICO. The current market value of the project’s token PAY is only 1.64 million USD.
Filecoin: The star of decentralized storage still has momentum
Filecoin, as a popular project for decentralized storage, was also one of the projects with the highest amount raised in 2017. Filecoin raised 253 million USD through ICO. To this day, many crypto investors are still mining FIL tokens. From the results, the current market value of FIL tokens is about 2.2 billion USD, second only to Polkadot among the star projects in 2017.
Cardano: Raised 10,000 BTC, a rare evergreen ICO
Cardano has always maintained a low profile and rarely gained much attention through marketing in the market. However, as a former public chain star, Cardano also created the most enduring ICO record. From 2015 to 2017, it conducted a total of 5 rounds of ICO, raising 10,800 BTC, with a total amount of about 62.24 million USD. However, the performance of its token ADA has always been good, with a current market value of 17.7 billion USD, ranking around the top 10. It can be considered a rare competitive project in the ICO era.
Status: Once difficult to obtain, lucky not to invest
Status completed a 105 million USD ICO fundraising in 2017, raising a total of 300,000 ETH. Since 2017, the project has gradually sold the tokens it held, and it currently holds 17,000 ETH, worth about 54 million USD. The market value of its token SNT is about 150 million USD. Status was also extraordinarily popular in 2017. According to official disclosures, the ETH refunded from the ICO reached 347,000 ETH, more than the amount raised. I wonder if those investors who did not successfully participate in the ICO are now regretting not exchanging their ETH for SNT.
In summary, in addition to the listed projects, there were many projects that were popular during the ICO boom from 2016 to 2017, many of which have completely ceased operations and disappeared from the market. It is always meaningful to look back at history. From the inventory of the top 10 projects, these projects were undoubtedly the most dazzling stars of that era, easily obtaining huge investments under the halo of celebrities. After 7 years, the projects that claimed to create the next Bitcoin and Ethereum have been replaced by a new batch of players. This also inevitably leads us to think about how many of today’s star projects will still exist in the public eye in another 7 years, and who will fulfill their promises or survive based on fundraising.
Tags: Block.one, Filecoin, Golem, Bitcoin, fundraising
Source link: https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/kh3ljys6.html
Note: The views expressed in this article and all other BitPush News articles represent the author’s opinion and do not constitute investment advice.
Original article link: https://www.bitpush.news/articles/6923806
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