How blockchain startups are driving an under-the-radar fundraising boom

Few investors even on Wall Street are aware that over $220 million has been raised in the past three years through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). ICOs are a new form of investment, somewhere between an IPO and a Kickstarter, in which new blockchain ventures sell a digital currency they create to use with their software before the software itself is written.
ICOs are easy money nowadays, and I’ve participated in a few myself; but when it came to my own blockchain startup, I urged that we avoid this Wild West of finance.
Not that there’s any doubt blockchain technology will see huge successes. Bitcoin and blockchain tech will change our lives as substantially as the personal computer and the Internet did before it. But while the word ‘dot-com’ was on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the late ’90s, the blockchain investment boom is largely happening under the radar due to this ICO phenomenon.

This post was published at Venture Beat on NOVEMBER 13, 2016.