The concept of the ICO heralded in a completely new way for crypto companies to raise capital without having to depend on a handful of decision makers in Funds or VC companies with deep pockets. In the early ICO's, like Ethereum, there was a heavy reliance on the masses to provide the funds. For a moment, the crowd and institutional investors had equal access. But that changed quickly..

When the post-ICO token values started skyrocketing in 2017, the institutional investors moved in for the kill.

Soon enough we started to see large allocations of ICO tokens being sold off to institutional investors in early presale rounds at heavy discounts. The ICO issuers were happy to take the guaranteed early funding rather than soley rely on the crowdsale.

And the Institutional appetite grew..

After hearing about Pantera Capital's 25,000% ROI, more Hedge Funds and VC's flooded the market with funding, to the point where the crowdfunding was no longer needed. The crowdsales became more of an afterthought than the main event.

Think Blockport, Legolas, Storecoin or Polymath..

The only way for the crowd to access the ICOs that VC's and Hedge Funds are after is by joining an ICO buying pool. Often these ICO pools can act as an institutional investor to ICO issuers, giving them access to top tier allocations which then then to their members. The benefits of getting in on early rounds are astronimical, lets take dfinity for example:

People who aren't considered considered 'strategic' might be lucky enough to secure a main round allocation and pay 3.9x the price for tokens. These ICO buying pools are rising in popularity because they are often able to secure strategic allocations at a fraction of the ICO token price.

For months, ICOs have had the luxury of being picky about whom their funding came from, often selecting 'strategic' investors who bring more than just ETH to the table. Investors need to pitch to the ICO how they can play a strategic role in the business, and if convinced, the ICO issuer will grant an allocation.

But that was in a bull market..

What will happen in a bear market?

Will top-tier ICOs be forced to open up to the crowds again? Or are the VC's and Hedge funds here to stay? Or will the crowd have to rely on ICO buying pools to access the top tier ICOs?

Time will tell.