Initial coin offering (ICO) as a fundraising strategy: A multiple case study on success factors

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) are some of the more prominent examples of currently used blockchain technology applications. Especially software startups have leveraged ICOs to gain funding early on in their lifecycles, going on to develop and create new blockchain based applications. Recently, larger companies such as Facebook have also begun to show interest in cryptocurrency, although thus far not for funding purposes in the form of ICOs. In this paper, we investigate factors that positively affect the abilities of companies to meet their fundraising goals via ICOs. We first identify a set of factors from extant literature and then seek to further confirm the effect of these factors while uncovering new ones by means of a multiple case study of eight firms that have carried out an ICO with varying success. Based on the data, we highlight success factors for ICOs in funding use.