ICORating’s new ICO Market Research Q2 2018 report outlines the main trends of the ICO market in Q2 2018. The nature of investment in the ICO market in Q2 is changing, both amount of funds raised and requirements for projects have multiplied.

$8,359,976,282 is the total funding amount raised by 827 projects over the quarter, compared to the $3,331,005,381 collected in the 1st quarter of 2018. Thus, there has been a 151% increase in Q2 of 2018. Funds raised by EOS project account for most of this increase, they have collected $4,197,956,135 for a year-long ICO.

In performing our analysis, we have paid specific attention to the geographical distribution of projects, the distribution of their industries, and the development stages of their products. The post-ICO state of projects has been taken into consideration, as well as the crucial question of how profitable it was to invest in ICOs of Q2 2018. Due to the increase in the number of crypto asset-focused funds, a portion of our market review is dedicated to the current state of institutional funding in ICOs.

In Q2 2018, the majority of projects were launched in Europe — 46% of all projects. North America was the leader in terms of funds raised — 64.67% of all funding attracted. Asia-based projects showed an increase in funds raised (+20%), but a decrease in the number of projects launched (–40%).

We outline three key developments in the report. Firstly, we highlight a sharp increase in the share of institutional capital and a continued decline in the number of retail investors. Secondly, the impact that crypto exchanges have on the market continues to rise significantly. Lastly, we noticed that many projects preferred to raise the majority of their ICO funding in private rather than public sales in this period.

One of the trends in the 2nd quarter was an increase in the share of tokens allocated to private and presale stages, and, accordingly, a decrease in allocations for crowdsales.

Find the full report here.