The 3 Biggest ICOs, so Far

Kik, Canada’s messaging app unicorn, is slated to hold a coin offering next month and naturally, a lot of people are getting worked up about it. For one, Kik is a more mature company compared to the usual ICO fare, and two, with a $125 million target, the offering seems to have wowed quite a few with its size.

But is it the biggest? Here are the three biggest digital coin offerings so far, according to the Coin Telegraph:

#3: Bancor, $153 million Bancor, a blockchain protocol, set records earlier this year after it raised $153 million in Ether in just three hours. It was so popular that the Ethereum network was flooded with traffic, leading to several transaction problems and worries over coin oversupply. It became such an issue that Meni Rosenfeld, chairman of Israel’s Bitcoin Association, ending up stepping down from his role as a Bancor advisor. At any rate, the offering attracted a lot of big investors including billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper.

#2: Tezos, $232 million Barely a month after Bancor’s ICO, cryptoledger Tezos shattered records when its offering raised a massive $232 million. The offering, which brought in 65,627 bitcoin and 361,122 ether, was held for 12 days and caused ether investors to worry about potential ETH selloffs when Tezos finally need to convert the coins to fiat.

#1: Filecoin, $250 million, and counting! Grabbing the number one spot – unsurprisingly – is Filecoin’s currently ongoing coin offering. At the time of writing, the decentralized storage network has raised $252 million from accredited investors and venture capital firms, smashing any comer in the biggest ICO category. Interestingly enough, Filecoin’s ICO is SEC-limited to vetted investors such as high net worth individuals and VCs, leading some to speculate how bigger it might’ve been had it been open to a broader market. In any case, the offering is set to close early September.

And there you have it, the three largest ICOs, so far.

Photo: iStock