Which One Has Spread Faster ICO or COVID-19?
As much as I try to avoid the flood of virus-related information, nowadays it is close to impossible. Not only has COVID-19 has spread all around the globe, but it has also found its way into every single crypto media outlet and email inbox.
Now, when I think about this, it does bring back the memories. Remember how back in 2017, everyone was obsessed with ICOs? Even my friends who had no idea about what Bitcoin actually is asked me which ICO they should invest in. Media that had no relation to crypto gave lots of publicity to the brand-new way of crowdfunding. It was a huge deal and lots of people got obsessed with it.
Both events made quite a sensation. But which one is more contagious: the deadly virus or the idea of easy money?
Google and Media Presence
According to Google Trends, ICO interest peaked at 100 in late 2017. With the virus, things escalated much quicker — it took just two months for the COVID-19 trend to reach the top.
Almost every crypto media now has a Coronavirus column. Although ICOs were not as popular, every single mainstream media, even those unrelated to anything techie, dedicated a few articles to this topic. This leads to a huge amount of fake news as everyone is manipulating data for hype, clickbait, and traffic. Only a few media outlets provide real analysis.
The Rise of Scammers Activity
When you start comparing ICOs and the 2020 pandemic, you’ll find a lot of things in common. Both of them attracted a countless amount of scamming activities.
By now, Americans have already lost $13.4 million due to fraud connected to COVID-19. ICO investors have lost nearly $100 million in scam ICOs from the first day.
Considering the fact that the pandemic is not even close to its finish, the losses will only progress.
China vs the USA
Once both of the things went viral, the two countries, China and the US, had a really tough time fighting them. China was the first to beat (actually, ban) the ICO movement, and the US kept trying to regulate it until it fizzled out by itself.
FUD
Both of the phenomenons — ICO and corona — have raised a great deal of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. You shouldn’t trust everything they say about the corona. And time showed that hardly anything the ICO movement has promised turned out to be true. We need to learn to put our gadgets away, not settle for raw information, and only resort to reliable sources of information.
Wash your hands and don’t talk scammers!
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Originally published at https://blog.lumiwallet.com on April 20, 2020.
