Author: Robert D. Knight, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Tao Zhu, Jinse Finance
Of the 10 largest projects launched during the initial coin offering (ICO) era, three are now inactive or dead, with most of the rest struggling to find relevance.
An examination of the big winners during the ICO craze shows that raising millions of dollars doesn’t solve all problems, and sometimes it makes them worse.
EOS
At the height of the ICO era in 2017, Brendan Blumer and Dan Larimer proposed a new ultra-fast blockchain, EOS, that would provide vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications.
Block.one, the company that manages EOS, completed a year-long ICO in 2018, raising a staggering $4.2 billion. To this day, it remains the largest token sale of all time.
Block.one and EOS did not take the crypto world by storm as expected. Instead, the company was bogged down by projects that had nothing to do with its core mission. A centralized exchange called Bullish was founded, and $180 million of funds were invested in a social media platform called Voice.
Perhaps Block.one’s multi-billion dollar extravagance caused them to lose focus. In 2021, the EOS community created the EOS Network Foundation to help support the project’s development independent of Block.one.
In May 2024, the EOS Network Foundation announced a new token model that eliminated inflationary token economics and introduced a fixed supply model with a maximum supply of 2.1 billion tokens.
EOS has a market cap of $770 million and is trading at $0.52 as of the time of writing on August 23, down 97.7% from its peak of $22.71 in April 2018.
Status: Active.
Telegram Open Network
Brothers Pavel and Nikolay Durov have big plans for the Telegram Open Network (TON). If realized, the network and its native Toncoin will combine and power messaging, file sharing, and an anonymity layer for the network.
While the SEC has allowed other blockchain projects to continue operating after paying fines, it has been less lenient with TON.
After raising $1.7 billion, the SEC banned TON from issuing its tokens and ordered Telegram to repay investors. In addition, the SEC issued a fine of $18.5 million.
The Durov brothers were not so easily discouraged. They continued to work on the “Open Network,” which has many of the same features and characteristics as originally proposed for the Telegram Open Network. The Open Network was launched by an independent community of developers that formed the TON Foundation.
Later, developers not working under Telegram's direction launched a Toncoin currency independently of Telegram.
Status: Reborn and active.
Tezos
Initially, Tezos seemed destined for big things. Led by American husband-and-wife team Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, Tezos offered a fresh and compelling story that captured the imagination of cryptocurrency investors.
The idea? Create a “self-amending” cryptocurrency that allows stakeholders to influence the future direction of the Tezos blockchain. In theory, this would allow Tezos to do and be anything its users want. It would also eliminate the specter of hard forks, since whenever a disagreement arises, a democratic vote would resolve the issue.
Tezos broke crowdfunding records when it raised $232 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum in a token sale in July 2017. Hopes were high, but the problems were just beginning.
Shortly after the funding, the Breitmans and Tezos Foundation chairman Johann Gevers fell out.
Progress on the “democratic” blockchain stalled amid squabbling among C-level executives. Gevers was persuaded to resign from the Tezos Foundation in February 2018, but by then critical momentum and community goodwill had been lost.
To make matters worse for Tezos, the SEC soon filed charges for unregistered securities sales. A class action lawsuit soon followed.
Amid court cases, drama, public infighting, and hopeless delays, Tezos has faded from public consciousness. But the project lives on.
Today, Tezos has a market cap of $698 million. Its token is priced at $0.70, down 92% from its all-time high of $9.12 in October 2021.
Tezos price chart over the years. Source: CoinMarketCap
In June 2024, the company released an updated roadmap, “Tezos X,” which promises faster blocks and scaling through “smart rollups.”
Status: Active.
Filecoin
Filecoin is a decentralized storage project that raised $233 million in 2017. The hype has long passed, but the project continues to operate and provide file hosting services as advertised.
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) such as Filecoin have been one of the hot narrative trends in 2024. In March, the price of Filecoin rose to $11.46 but failed to maintain this high.
FIL currently has a market cap of $2.2 billion and a token price of $3.90, down 98.4% from its peak of $236.84 in April 2021.
Status: Active.
Dragon Coin
In 2018, Dragon Inc. launched an ICO for Dragon Coin (DRG), a gambling token and payment system for the Asian online casino market. Curiously, they also planned to build a “Chinese Cultural City” in Cambodia.
The ICO was a huge success, raising $320 million. A month later, it was revealed that the project was linked to Wan Kuok-koi, the leader of Macau’s 14K Triad. Wan was previously sentenced to 13 years in prison for illegal gambling, loan sharking, and criminal gangs.
Wan Kuok-koi (center) and his deputy Chen Huimin (left) with the commander of the Cambodian Prime Minister's Guard (right). Source: China-Cambodia Observation
Dragon Coin’s links to the Thai film industry have also surfaced, with actor Jiratpisit Jaravijit, often referred to by the nickname “Boom,” being arrested after ICO funds were found in his bank account.
Jiratpisit may have thought it was on the fast track to making money, but this particular ICO project caught everyone by surprise.
Status: Deceased.
HDAC
In December 2017, Hyundai Digital Assets, a subsidiary of South Korean automaker Hyundai, announced its entry into the blockchain space with a $258 million ICO.
HDAC has big plans for enterprise blockchain, IoT, and automotive production lines. It will also connect blockchains and support e-sports gaming.
The project appeared to be still operating in 2020, but stopped updating shortly thereafter and lost track. While other projects in the ICO collapsed and failed, HDAC faded into obscurity.
Status: Missing, presumed dead.
Sirin Labs
December 2017 was the heyday of ICOs, and the Swiss-Israeli Sirin Labs also completed a $157.9 million financing that month.
Less than a year after Sirin Labs set out to build an affordable blockchain phone, they’ve unveiled their latest model: Finney.
The Finney, named after blockchain pioneer and Satoshi candidate Hal Finney, shipped in November 2018 for $1,000.
While Finney isn’t cheap, it’s worth more than Sirin Labs’ previous pre-ICO phone model, Solarin, which retailed for a whopping $16,000.
Sirin Labs may have had an interesting concept and a functional product to bring to market, but ultimately, Finney failed to gain traction in the competitive mobile phone space.
Status: Deceased.
Bancor
In June 2017, Bancor raised $153 million, making it one of the largest and most successful ICOs of all time.
The company is still in operation today, and its flagship project is Carbon, a decentralized exchange for on-chain trading.
On July 8, 2019, Bancor restricted U.S. customers from using its platform, citing a lack of clarity from regulators. In February 2021, a U.S. judge dismissed the lawsuit against Bancor for lack of personal jurisdiction, a decision that appears to have been a wise one.
Bancor (BNT) has a market cap of $63 million and is trading at $0.50 at the time of writing, down 95% from its peak of $10.72 in January 2018.
Status: Active.
Bankera
Bankera, an alternative to traditional bank accounts, completed its ICO in February 2018. The payment provider raised $153 million.
Bankera (BNK) was initially launched based on the ERC-223 token standard, but this decision did not go as smoothly as expected. In February 2022, the company announced that it would launch a new Bankera token based on the more generally accepted ERC-20 standard.
Sometimes being a pioneer just isn’t worth it. Etherscan shows that BNK’s current market cap is just $700,000. The BNK token is trading at $0.07.
Status: Slightly active.
Polkadot
Polkadot is a project created by Gavin Wood, one of the founders of Ethereum, and is the last item on this list.
In October 2017, Polkadot’s ICO raised $145 million and promised to bring horizontal scaling to the industry through parachain technology. Polkadot is a base layer for other blockchains (called parachains).
In May 2024, a report from Messari showed that Polkadot’s daily active addresses reached an all-time high of 514,000, a 48% increase from the previous month and a 192% increase from the previous six months.
Takeaway: Unlike many of its ICO peers, Polkadot continues to thrive.
Polkadot (DOT), an inflation token, is currently trading at $4.65, down 91.5% from its all-time high of $54.98 in November 2021. Its market cap is $6.5 billion.
Status: Active.
