Initial Coin Offering. New form of corporate financing (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology behind them have grown in popularity. A new funding mechanism has emerged from blockchain technology, referred to as Initial Coin Offering (hereafter abbreviated as ICO). Recently, this instrument has been increasingly used to finance blockchain-based projects and represents a new alternative to traditional forms of capital raising such as venture capital financing.

Although the investors often receive neither co-determination rights nor a share in the profits of the project in return for their financial resources, the organizations implementing the ICOs manage to collect millions of euros within a few hours. The venture capital raised through ICOs has grown from around $300 million to around $19.4 billion since January 2017 to June 2018. Due to the rapidly increasing popularity of ICOs, the new financing mechanism is the focus of this bachelor thesis. This serves as introductory literature for the reader and gives him an understanding of the new form of corporate financing. In addition, it should be examined whether the recent success of the ICOs can be justified.