The number of ICOs launched in the second quarter of the year grew by 49 percent, a new report states. The amount of money raised, however, indicated that investors were less excited at the prospect of investing in ICOs, as it fell by 12 percent. Finance and commerce ICO projects took the lion’s share of the money, with entertainment coming in third. The number of projects that hit their hard cap also fell, with investors remaining cautious in the wake of huge market volatility.
The Market in Q2
The report compiled by digital assets management firm Matrix CIB revealed that in the second quarter of this year, 288 ICO projects were launched. This was a 49 percent increase from the 193 projects launched in the previous quarter. Despite the growth in the number of projects, the amount raised from ICOs dropped by 12 percent to $3.5 billion. The number of projects that hit their hard cap also dropped significantly from the 86 percent registered in the first quarter to 54 percent in Q2.
The four biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap retained their positions in the second quarter. Bitcoin, Ether, XRP and Bitcoin Cash maintained their places at the top, with Litecoin losing its spot as the fifth biggest cryptocurrency to EOS. The five largest cryptocurrencies also maintained their combined share of the total market capitalization which stood at 75 percent.
The quarter also saw a number of projects launch their mainnets. The biggest and most anticipated of these was EOS, whose yearlong ICO had set the record for the most funds raised. The anticipation of the mainnet launch, coupled with the successful ICO, shot EOS up the charts to become the fifth most valuable crypto. Other projects that launched mainnets included TRON, VeChain, Aion and Ontology.
Cryptos’ fight against being categorized as securities continued in the second quarter, with the bigger cryptos such as XRP being especially involved. However, Bitcoin and Ether held the distinction of being the only two cryptos that were exempted from being branded as securities. The SEC made it clear that thanks to their decentralized nature, the two biggest cryptos wouldn’t be categorized as securities, which was well received by the market.
The report builds on a similar one released earlier which indicated that Bitcoin’s volatility had dropped greatly in Q2. The Average True Range for Bitcoin fell from $1,400-$166 in Q1 to $400-$140 in Q2. The ATR measures the volatility, with a higher range reflecting more volatility in the market. The report also revealed that Bitcoin had been the worst performer among the top five cryptos. Bitcoin had dropped by 4.32 percent in the quarter, with Ripple coming in second with a 2 percent drop. The best performer was Ethereum which gained 23 percent, with Bitcoin Cash registering a 20 percent increase. Interestingly, the total market cap for cryptos remained largely unchanged at the end of both quarters at $267 and $254 billion respectively.
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