Wednesday, September 20, 2017 9:32 AM UTC 0 comments

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or token sale has become one of the most popular tools among tech startups seeking to raise funds. The growth of this burgeoning ecosystem is evidenced by the fact that over 100 token sales have raised more than $1.5 billion in 2017 alone.

Some of the most successful ICOs include Filecoin ($257 million), Tezos ($232 million), and Bancor ($153 million).

The enormous amount of funding raised by these projects has grabbed the attention of global regulators. In the past couple of weeks, global regulatory authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Bank of Russia, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) have warned investors against potential ICO related risks. In addition, the SEC, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) have issued guidance on how ICO tokens may be subject to securities laws.

While regulators are doing the needful to protect investor interest, critics put forth the argument that tech giants like Google and Microsoft didn’t raise millions of dollars before they embarked on their journey. However, those in favor of ICOs say that it is here to stay as it is an easy and faster way of raising funds.

Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital told TechCrunch,“I think there are a lot of projects where they are saying ‘Hey. It’s kind of hard to raise money in the venture world, why don’t I just do an ICO?’ “Maybe there the token isn’t ultimately necessary, and someone will just fork it and replace it with a cheaper product.”

It is highly important for investors to assess the fundamentals of a project before they decide to invest their money. The buzz that these projects create is important to the extent of getting the attention from prospective investors. This, however, should not be regarded as a gauge of how successful a project can be.

To delve into this ICO ecosystem and better understand the key points before investing, EconoTimes and Seoul-based fintech company Metaps Plus are co-hosting a webinar on Thursday September 21, 2017, at 1 pm GMT (10 pm KST).

Metaps Plus, a member of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), recently announced plans to launch a new digital currency exchange "CoinRoom" and new Ethereum-based token "PlusCoin". The company currently has Samsung Securities as its advisor and KPMG as its auditor.

The webinar follows an offline seminar held in Seoul on Monday, September 18, 2017. You can register here to watch the live streaming webinar: https://goo.gl/forms/aH5wRr2ETgk4eB9F2