The Impact of Project Characteristic on the ICO Performance

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the relatively new way to raise funds for a project based on the use of blockchain technology which recently became extremely popular. To attract funds companies issue tokens and sale it to the investors. A statistical analysis of factors influencing the success of raising funds through the ICO was conducted. We received data on ICOs which took place from the beginning of August 2017 until the end of February 2018 from website www.icodrops.com (total the sample of 243 consecutive projects). We considered factors affecting the success: the price of the token, the type of the token, the number of accepted currencies, the number of team members, the option for investors to pay tokens with the non-crypto (fiat) currency, bonuses for the early purchase of tokens, and the influence mentions of the project in social networks. We used such analysis methods as correlation, ANOVA, dispersion and regression analysis. As a result, linear and logit models were obtained, which can be used to predict the success of the ICO. The analysis showed that the main factors influencing the success of the ICO are the price and type of the token, the industry in which the project's future work is expected, the number of positive mentions on social networks, and bonuses for the early acquisition of tokens.