Dubai: Initial Coin offerings (ICO) fund raising surged to $6.8 billion (Dh25 billion) in 2017 from $151 million in 2014, 2015 and 2016 combined, and analysts are doubtful if 2018 will be another record year due to expected regulations.
“It is tough to tell if ICO issuance could be stronger in 2018 relative to a record 2017, as further concerns and action by regulators worldwide and continued exuberance in the crypto space do match each other quite strongly,” Alberto Perucchini, Next Generation research analyst at Julius Baer told Gulf News.
“Further regulation of, or bans on, ICOs are definitely on the cards. We view ICOs negatively, as we are concerned by legal (fraud) and fiscal (tax evasion) risks, as well as economic ones (the fact that coins or tokens are billed as both currency and equity, even though they can only, at best, be one of either),” he added.
Mohammed Al Sehli, founder and CEO ArabianChain also agreed.
“Governments and regulators are being more aware about decentralised fund raising and they see the value and the benefits in that, and they also see the risks and they try to protect their citizens from falling into fraudulent behaviours which is good, and we would have less in numbers but better options and opportunities being presented to the market as fair companies and investments,” Al Sehli said.
