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January 4th, 2024
Investment Executive | James Langton | May 7, 2019
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) can be an effective approach to start-up financing, argues a paper from the Bank of Canada.
A new staff working paper from the central bank examined the ICO phenomenon that has emerged in recent years as a way for fledgling companies to secure early-stage financing.
While the approach has attracted a fair amount of negative attention amid reports of failed and fraudulent offerings, the paper found that it can actually be the ideal way to fund a company in certain circumstances.
Specifically, the paper looked at how the ICO structure impacts the incentives of entrepreneurs, compared with traditional debt and equity financing, and concluded that it can be the better way to finance a company.
“Our results show that ICOs can have beneficial economic properties when compared with conventional financing strategies,” it said. “For certain projects, ICO financing generates a higher net present value than conventional modes of financing and is sometimes the only profitable form of financing.”
According to the paper, the essential factor is that returns to ICO investors be based on a project’s sales revenue, rather than profits.
“This can make things better in situations where effort by the entrepreneur leads to cost savings rather than higher sales,” it noted, as the benefits of cost savings are entirely retained by the company.
At the same time, the paper also highlighted a couple of unique risks to ICOs, including the risk of market manipulation. “Token ownership needs to be sufficiently widely dispersed to avoid [that risk],” the paper said.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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