There should be no doubt by now that initial coin offerings — token sale fundraisings by startups — have established themselves as new and very compelling forms of capital raising.

Startups, primarily in the blockchain world, raised $4.6bn in various forms of token launches in 2017, a quantum leap from the $0.2bn raised the year before. While this may not seem like much compared to the $188.8bn raised in traditional IPOs in 2017, five of the largest ICOs in history took place in October and November so there is clearly strong momentum.