Can you list your ICO token for free?
Since last April 2017, when the initial coin offer (ICO) frenzy started, a total of 875 ICOs were issued raising around 6.2 billion in 2017. By Q1 2018, a staggering $6.3 billion was raised, led by Telegram raising an estimated $1.7 billion, overshadowing the amount of ICO funding raised in 2018.
2017 saw US$6,213,002,958 raised in funding across 875 ICOs, while 2018 saw US$7,383,833,791 across 1202 ICOs, according to information from ICOdata.io
Most utility tokens issued have demonstrated near zero returns since their ICOs ended, bringing about the questions as to where did the money raised from investors go to.
Throughout 2017 and most of 2018, there have been at least 36 projects that raised over US$50 million, while 13 projects raised between US$100 million — US $320 million.
Do these projects require that much capital to get their projects going? $50 million is generally more than sufficient to enable a company for talent acquisition, software product development, as well as brand and business development.
On top of the listing on the centralized exchange, the issuers also need to engage lawyers to get a legal opinion to fulfil the compliance requirement to list their tokens on the centralized exchange, which typically costs around US$80,000 to US$200,000.
For the two-year period of 2017 and 2018, assuming ICO issuers spent on average $100,000 on listing fees, then it is a staggering $200 million spent on listing fees and a similar amount for legal opinion and consulting. No wonder these centralized exchanges are doing such brisk businesses!
These exorbitant listing fees are an affront to the cryptocurrency industry in areas concerning time and money. Project developers not only have to part with significant sums to list their tokens but also have to spend considerable time working with cryptocurrency exchanges to get their tokens listed, rather than focusing on building up and launching their project operations.
The LoLDEX Team believes that a more sustainable way to conduct a token listing is to raise only the amounts needed to reach a specific milestone. This helps to alleviate the concerns of issuers expending significant time and capital on a single placement raising money through a centralized exchange.
Instead, these ICO issuers can list their tokens via the LoLDEX platform, as there are no listing fees involved. The ICO would free up funds spent on listing on centralized crypto-exchanges, which can be put to better use in their token promotion.
Additionally, token issuers get to retain the majority of their tokens. At a stage when they achieve real traction with their project(s), they can proceed to release more tokens for sales, further building up sustainability of their token economy and maintaining stability in their token price.
The LoLDEX team believes that this contributes to a more sustainable and meaningful cryptocurrency ecosystem and is the right protocol for enabling this project.
