By
Kseniia Klichova
April 18th, 2024
Although Ethereum has been in a bearish trend this year, most of the largest ICO projects have managed to sell as much ETH as they raised, remaining unaffected by its price decline.
According to a recent research by Hong Kong trading platform BitMEX, the majority of ICOs have not been affected by Ethereum price changes this year as it was expected. The report was prepared in collaboration with digital currency analytics provider TokenAnalyst and analyzed Ethereum balances of 222 of the largest ICOs.
Most of these projects, the report unveiled, have managed to convert what they raised in ETH to fiat currency, earning more than $727 million in the process. Meantime, of all the 15 million ETH gained by ICOs, almost 4 million ETH are still on these projects’ balances.
“Despite the 85% reduction in the Ethereum price from its peak, the projects have realised gains of US$727 million due to profits from Ethereum have they already sold, often selling before the recent price crash,” the research states.
“The 3.8m Ethereum still on the balance sheets of these projects may not have that much of an impact on the Ethereum price, as it represents a reasonably small proportion of the 102 million supply of Ethereum. At the same time, on a macro level, the projects may be feeling reasonably confident rather than needing to panic sell.”
Ethereum price has seen a dramatic decline this year, losing more than 80% of its value. After hitting a record high of $1,400 in January, the digital currency then followed a downward trend and even dropped below$200 a few weeks ago. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is standing at $230, as Coinspeaker shows.
As far as the largest project, BitMEX found that EOS generated as much as other ICOs combined. According to the company’s estimates, it has gained about 70% of Ethereum of all the projects mentioned in the report.
BitMEX has identified 171 EOS private transfers which have a total value of 7.2 million ETH or $3.9 billion. While there is a chance that Ethereum holdings were double counted, the report says there is no reason to believe the recycling took place, as “the 7.2 million Ethereum which was transferred out of the smart contract can give a degree of assurance the raising was genuine.”
As BitMEX noted, ICO treasury accounts now have lower level of exposure to the price of Ethereum that many have thought and it can be difficult to gather details about their ICO campaigns.
“The ICO projects or project teams essentially made out like bandits, at least with respect to the Ethereum they raised. As a tool to raise funds, the ICOs have clearly been a phenomenal success, to such an extent that even a further significant fall in the value of Ethereum will barely make a dent into the success,” the report says.
“Quite what this means for the Ethereum price going forwards is unclear, however we believe we have shown the “panic sell” thesis is either false or will only occur to a lesser extent than some expect,” BitMEX concluded.