ICOs
ICOs are increasingly just for venture capitalists
The rollercoaster-get-rich ICOs of 2017 are over — crypto companies are waking up to the idea that professional investors aren’t so bad after all. Companies used initial coin offerings (IC
Another day, another $50 million ICO exit scam
Savedroid, a German company that purportedly raised $50 million in ICO and direct funding, has exited with a bang. The site is currently displaying the above image and the founder — one Dr. Yass
Is venture capital ready for companies with no founders?
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) -- a funding mechanism based on the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin -- are a hot new way to launch a startup, and they're forcing investors to look at the
David Sacks’s new startup wants to make it safer for old-guard industries to jump into crypto
SEC chairman Jay Clayton made clear today that his agency, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, remains acutely concerned about initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trades. In fac
Equity podcast: Netflix soars, Twitter loses a big bird, Lyft isn’t woke and more ICOs
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we once again had the full crew on set: Matthew Lynley, Ka
Equity podcast: Dropbox and Xiaomi want to go public, and how big is Telegram’s ICO?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a corker. Our co-host Matthew Lynley is back, Katie an
RIP IPO (1602-2018)
In comparison to an anemic 2016 for venture-backed technology IPOs, 2017 was a much better year. Companies as diverse as Yext, Cloudera, Blue Apron, StitchFix, and SendGrid all went public last year,
Indiegogo now lets you fund via token sale
Crowdfunding service and Kickstarter-competitor Indiegogo is now offering an ICO service alongside its partner, MicroVentures. The company will allow users to participate in SEC-complaint ICOs and, li
European financial watchdog latest to warn over ICOs
European Union financial regulator, the ESMA, has become the latest regulatory body to issue a warning about the risks of buying into -- and running -- ICOs.
70 years of VC innovation
How old is venture capital? Probably as old as the first hunter/gatherer. Yet, until the mid-20th century, it was mostly practiced by wealthy individuals and families. Modern VC was initiated by Frenc
Two global investors will talk token sales at Disrupt Berlin
Token sales, also called ICOs, are the new normal when it comes to early stage cash. Originally envisioned as a way to create new and unique rails for payments, customer interaction, and peer-to-peer
The new age of ICOs is here, and it’s not based on Ethereum
ICOs are said to be the new way to raise money. We’ve seen companies raising millions by selling tokens. Against the money raised, the tokens they gave were created and sold on the Ethereum blockcha
First China, now South Korea has banned ICOs
South Korea has banned ICOs, the up-and-coming method of raising funding via crypto tokens, due to concerns over the potential for financial scams. China’s Central Bank became the first to outla
Kik raises nearly $100M in highest profile ICO to date
The highest profile ICOs from a consumer internet company to date has come to a close after messaging app Kik raised nearly $100 million from its token sale. The exact amount is 168,732 ETH —
YC wants to let people invest in its startups through the blockchain
ICOs -- or initial coin offerings -- are emerging as a route for startups to raise money from a wide pool of investors through cryptocurrency networks. Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in
How NOT to invest in ICOs
The early days of ICOs are even more speculative than the dot-com bubble, and Google ads clearly aren’t your friend.
ICOs aren’t just about raising lots of money, say founders who raised lots of money from ICOs
It’s impossible to ignore the rush of ICOs in venture capital land. The new fundraising dynamic has helped companies raise more than $1.7 billion this year to date. Huge sums of money tend to ca
Japanese startup plans one-stop ICO platform fueled by VC investment and an ICO
China banned ICOs this week and it is investigating platforms that facilitate them. Over in nearby Japan, one company is hatching an ambitious plan to offer a one-stop-service to let companies across
ICO funding hit a record $800 million in Q2 2017
If a ban initiated by China’s central bank this week marks an end to the first era of ICOs — the early gold rush before the regulators arrive — then Q2 2017 may turn out to be a pea
Cryptocurrencies have already recovered from last weekend’s crash
When cryptocurrency markets crashed 20% a few days ago, I wrote “the next day or so will tell us if this was a temporary bump in the road or the start of the next major correction.” Well h