Crypto Primary Markets, ICOs & Venture Capital
Required Readings:
‘Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)’ MIT Cryptocurrency Online Short Course (as adapted, August 2019)
‘J. R. Willett: How I Invented the First ICO’ radarZero (March 20, 2018)
‘ICO Market Monthly Analysis July 2019’ ICObench (August 14, 2019)
‘Crypto Token Sales Market Statistics’ CoinSchedule (access to review last 6 months of ICO stats)
‘Raising Money in the Crypto World Has Gotten a Lot Harder’ Wall Street Journal (March 31, 2019)
Optional Reading:
‘EY study: Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) The Class of 2017 – one year later’ Ernst & Young (October 19,
2018)
‘Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens’ Catalini and Gans (June 25, 2018)
‘The Second Bitcoin Whitepaper’ J.R. Willett (January 2012)
Study Questions/Issues to Prepare:
1) What is the crowdfunding mechanism of blockchain technology – Initial coin offerings (ICOs)?
What are Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and Security Token Offerings (STOs)?
2) How ICOs mix economic attributes of both consumption and investment. How ICO tokens’
design features – their risks, expectation of profits, manner of marketing, exchange trading,
limited supply and capital formation – are similar to investments schemes.
3) What attributes distinguish ICOs & IEOs from other means of capital raising from venture capital
funds or through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)?