There have been more than 200 ICOs in 2017, raising a combined total surpassing $3 billion. September was the most successful month so far, with ICOs raising more than $800 million. This figure is particularly impressive considering the fact that both China and South Korea outlawed the ICO fundraising model.

The top three initial coin offerings of 2017 are currently Filecoin with $257 million, Tezos with $232 million and EOS Stage 1 with $185 million. Some experts, such as Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne, expect the upcoming tZero ICO to surpass all of them, mentioning figures as high as $500 million. According to CoinSchedule, infrastructure projects have secured around 40% of the funding, followed by trading, finance and data storage projects hovering at about 10% each.

It is worth mentioning, however, that the success of the ICO model could turn out to be a double-edged sword, as it has already invited increased attention from regulatory bodies such as the SEC and CFTC in the United States. The SEC, for example, has formed a cyber task force with the monitoring of »Violations involving distributed ledger technology and initial coin offerings« as one of its stated goals.