Blockchain industry 2019 mid-year review: Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Libra, Binance leaves the US, IEO replaces ICO

Blockchain industry 2019 mid-year review

This year has been a tremendously exciting one in the world of blockchain and digital assets. As we approach the end of June and look back on the year to date, we believe the first six months of 2019 will be remembered for two significant trends in the industry:

-The recovery of crypto asset prices (particularly Bitcoin).

-The dramatic emergence of Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) as a funding model.

According to our in-house research, both these trends are interconnected. The apparent end of the crypto bear market has returned confidence to the industry, both in terms of new retail participants and inspiring startup founders who delayed their ICOs in 2018 to return, although seeking a new funding model. This return of the “animal spirits’ to the market coincided with the rise of the IEO fundraising model via Launchpads on exchanges like Binance, Huobi and ExMarkets. The benefits of running a public token sale through a reputable exchange via IEO, compared to the now discredited ICO model have been well documented so don’t need to be repeated here.

Within the emerging IEO market itself we see two routes to success for projects and participants:

-One method is to participate in the “mega” IEOs with players like Binance or OKEx which are tremendously expensive for projects and can be hard for retail players to access but can yield good results.

-The other is to partner with fast growing IEO Launchpads like ExMarkets which host selected high potential projects at a reasonable cost, while providing a strong opportunity for retail participants to access a diverse mix of vetted projects at an early stage and benefit from future growth accordingly.  Participants have also become more demanding and are attracted the additional security of regulatory compliant platforms like ExMarkets, which have the appropriate Crypto-Fiat licences, EU domicile and fiat gateway.

Our high level forecast for H2 2019 sees the major crypto assets continue to recover, with BTC as a clear leader.  The recent news that Binance will withdraw access to it’s main exchange for US clients may cause some short term headwinds for altcoins but we don’t expect any long term reversal of the current more optimistic trend.

The other major news this week was that Facebook will launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra with major players like Visa, Mastercard, Uber, Stripe and Spotify allegedly paying up to $10 million each to run a node. We do not see this move into the industry by a large centralized business as a threat – in fact we believe that this development will bring more mainstream attention and subsequent participation, and will be a net positive for the overall IEO and cryptocurrency markets.

See more articles by Dylan here.

Dylan Sharkey is Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at CoinStruction, which builds trading and custody platforms for hedge funds, exchanges and financial institutions as well as Enterprise grade blockchain solutions for businesses and governments globally. He also holds a commercial leadership role at leading crypto lender HODL Finance, and is an early investor and board member at several blockchain startups. Before moving into the blockchain world, Dylan worked at LinkedIn for over six years, joining before their $350M IPO in 2011. As LinkedIn’s Head of Sales Solutions for the Middle East and North Africa, he helped launch their Dubai office and contributed to its growth from three initial employees to over 100 by 2017.

Dylan can be reached via email at [email protected] or via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylansharkey

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