Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), the cryptocurrency fundraising trend that started after Binance created its Launchpad platform, is seemingly on the wane. Available data shows that so far this month, little over $30 million was raised, down from over $1.2 billion in May.
According to data from CoinSchedule, in May of this year initial exchange offerings raised a total of $1.27 billion, while in June the total amount raised was of around $287.3 million. So far this month, projects that turned to IEOs raised $30.1 million.
Source: CoinSchedule
It’s worth pointing out that in May over $1 billion were raised thanks to Bitfinex’s IEO, in which the company raised $1 billion through the sale of its Unus Sed Leo (LEO) tokens. The second biggest IEO to date hasn’t reached the $100 million mark, with Gatecoin’s Gatechain Token (GT) staying at $75 million.
While Bitfinex’s IEO helped inflate May’s numbers, well over $250 million was raised last month. The slowdown so far this month in funds raised seems to be related to the number of ongoing projects.
Data from the same source shows 22 token sales started in May of this year, with 29 ending that same month. In June, four token sales started and 22 ended, while so far this month five started and nine ended.
One factor that could be behind the dropping number of IEOs may be the market maturing. As investor hype dies down, projects start looking for cryptocurrency exchanges that have the resources to cater to their needs. That is, exchanges large enough to help them raise their target amount of funds, and with enough liquidity for their tokens.
A list of ongoing IEOs however, shows that there are still various projects raising funds through this method.
Among the exchanges running IEOs is OKEx, which recently announced its fifth token sale on the OK Jumpstart platform. Eminer (EM) will be launched on July 31, 2019, and will likely follow in the footsteps of other OKEx IEO sales which saw incredible demand for the tokens.
IEOs, it’s worth pointing out, largely replaced ICOs in the cryptocurrency space, as exchanges running the token sales essentially helps investors avoid scams, which were rampant in 2017.
While the latest data shows a slowdown in the market appetite for this latest flavour of token issuance, it remains far from certain that the model has had its day. As crypto markets seem poised at somewhat of a crossroads following the bullish momentum which began in April of this year, investors will pay close attention to new IEO releases as the market is poised for new movement.
