Initial coin offerings (ICOs): market cycles and relationship with bitcoin and ether

Abstract

We apply a vector autoregression (VAR) model to investigate the market cycles of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as well as their relationships with bitcoin and ether. Our sample covers 104 weekly observations between January 2017 and December 2018. Our results show that ICO market cycles exist and that shocks to the growth rates of ICO volumes are persistent. In addition, shocks in cryptocurrency returns have a substantial and positive effect on ICO volumes. In contrast, the volatility of cryptocurrency returns does not significantly affect ICO volumes. Our results are robust to using (i) the number of successfully completed ICO campaigns instead of ICO volumes and (ii) ICO data from a different data source. Our study has implications for financial practice, in particular for cryptocurrency investors and entrepreneurial firms conducting ICOs.

Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales

“…ICOs are a fundraising mechanism in which a new token is sold to investors and prospective returns, see Benedetti and Kostovetsky (2018), Chanson et al (2018), Dittmar and Wu (2018), Drobetz et al (2018), Hu et al (2018), Lu (2018), Momtaz (2018a), Stastny (2018), Yuryev (2018), and Stanley (2019). On the amount raised, including failure to meet a set target, see Adhami et al (2018), , Ante et al (2018), Blaseg (2018), Burns and Moro (2018), Davydiuk et al (2018), Feng et al (2018), Fenu et al (2018), Fisch (2018), , Momtaz (2018b), Momtaz (2018c), Rhue (2018b), Albrecht et al (2019), Ante and Fiedler (2019), Cai and Gomaa (2019), Cerchiello et al (2019), Chen (2019), Johnson and Yi (2019), Masiak et al (2019), Philippi et al (2019), and Wu et al (2019). On liquidity see Bourveau et al (2018), Lyandres et al (2018), and Fisch and Momtaz (2019).…”

The entrepreneurial finance markets of the future: a comparison of crowdfunding and initial coin offerings

“…11 The outlook is that the global CF market will exhibit slower but steady growth over time. 12 Contrary to CF markets, ICO activity has seen sharper growth and, recently, also rapid decline (Masiak et al 2019). For example, the first ICO (i.e., Mastercoin) emerged in July 2013 (Fisch 2019).…”

Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales

“…ICOs are a fundraising mechanism in which a new token is sold to investors and prospective returns, see Benedetti and Kostovetsky (2018), Chanson et al (2018), Dittmar and Wu (2018), Drobetz et al (2018), Hu et al (2018), Lu (2018), Momtaz (2018a), Stastny (2018), Yuryev (2018), and Stanley (2019). On the amount raised, including failure to meet a set target, see Adhami et al (2018), , Ante et al (2018), Blaseg (2018), Burns and Moro (2018), Davydiuk et al (2018), Feng et al (2018), Fenu et al (2018), Fisch (2018), , Momtaz (2018b), Momtaz (2018c), Rhue (2018b), Albrecht et al (2019), Ante and Fiedler (2019), Cai and Gomaa (2019), Cerchiello et al (2019), Chen (2019), Johnson and Yi (2019), Masiak et al (2019), Philippi et al (2019), and Wu et al (2019). On liquidity see Bourveau et al (2018), Lyandres et al (2018), and Fisch and Momtaz (2019).…”