What does this chart tell you? It shows the amount of money raised via initial coin offerings (ICOs) since the start of 2017 (we assume with an extra 6 zeros at the end of those numbers). But does this chart give you the sense that all is well in the Divine Brodom of Cryptoland? Does it give you any sense of crypto à la Européene?
Totally rationally, Business Insider used it on Tuesday to illustrate an article under the headline: Europe is killing it in crypto.
The story featured a couple of helpful bullet points at the top, including this one:
Until the crash of 2008 it was the banking industry that siphoned off Europe's top minds. Not anymore.
What the chart actually shows, we think it's fair to say, is that after a massive boom in ICOs at the end of last year and the start of this one, there has been an even more massive bust.
Aside from the sheer numbers, there's plenty of other evidence that investors are losing their appetite for le ICO. We wrote about a company last week, for example, that was trying to raise money for a project that it said would "save journalism" (NB we didn't think it would). The company, Civil, on Tuesday said it was canning its ICO after failing to raise enough money. (This, despite a big helping hand from its parent company, ConsenSys.) Civil is now refunding investors.
Then there's EQUI, the Lady Mone of Mayfair-fronted outfit that managed to raise just 843.33 ether in its ICO -- worth about $700,000 at the time -- before abandoning it, having "found the ICO World Of Business a very strange place of doing business". It has now relaunched with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, joining — as "co-founder" of EQUI. Lady Mone and the Woz will be going after "sophisticated investors" only.
One of the main reasons that ICOs are not doing so well is that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is increasingly cracking down on 'em, arguing -- rightly -- that they must be subject to the same rules as other securities.
The cryptocurrency market as a whole is down about 75 per cent from its January peak. Tether, the "stable coin" whose name is derived from the idea that it is "tethered" to the dollar, slipped to as low as $0.90 on some platforms this week, and is getting trolled by the very exchanges that make money from it. Bitcoin has warring factions whose key members are happy to get into actual physical fights aboard cruise ships. Research has shown that most ICOs are scams.
Absolutely no one is killing it in crypto. But crypto is killing itself.
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