With the ICO Era Winding Down, New Era Emerges

Highlighted the new trend, reporting that ICOs raised $300 million in August 2018.

This is the lowest level of funding seen in the past 16 months, a mere one-tenth of the average monthly funding volume in the first quarter of 2018.So what happened to the ICO market? It turns out that hundreds of ICOs in 2017 showed clear signs of fraud, with an estimated $1 billion of the $6 billion raised globally going into highly questionable deals.

Imagine losing 100 percent of your investment in an ICO scam, only to lose 95 percent of your next investment in a "Legitimate" ICO like this one.

Would you ever invest in an ICO again? Of course not.

That actively curate "a complete list of ICO exit scams and extinct coins," broken down into four gut-wrenching categories: Deceased, Hack, Scam and Parody.

Ouch.Last, but certainly not least, regulators have been clamping down, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issuing hundreds of subpoenas to domestic ICO issuers, marketing firms and even crypto hedge funds who may have violated federal securities or broker-dealer laws.

Lions, tigers and bears, oh my! As the ICO era is winding down, a new era is heating up.

The Dawn of Digital Securities Digital securities are digital assets that are compliant with federal securities laws and run on the blockchain.

Beyond DSO issuers, I know of major ICO hedge funds launching dedicated DSO funds, as well as firms that provided designated marketing making services to ICO issuers, and who are now pivoting to provide similar services to DSO issuers.

Even ICO marketing firms are realizing that the grass may be greener on the other side.