Determinants of ICO investment decision: An exploratory factor analysis

Abstract

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a funding mechanism used by projects to sell their crypto-token in exchange for Bitcoin, Ether, etc. It is the counterpart of the Initial Public Offering in the new digital currency economy. ICOs help projects to be funded in a short time with a high-profit margin. The primary purpose of this study is isolating the principal factors that affect the decision to invest in an ICO. A large array of potential signals, consisting of promotion and marketing effects, investor motivation, founder team effects, whitepaper and ICO specific factors, are considered in an online survey and the responses are analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. The results of the analysis reveal five composite principal factors that determine the decision to invest in an ICO. These five principal factors are the ICO whitepaper, websites for finance news and ICO listings, ICO project sector and founder, ICO project team and social media. Our findings provide a perspective to both investor and ICO founders about which factors to prioritize when deciding to launch an ICO or to invest in one.