Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales

Sabrina T. Howell, Marina Niessner and David Yermack

No 24774, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a new mechanism for entrepreneurial finance, with parallels to initial public offerings, venture capital, and pre-sale crowdfunding. In a sample of more than 1,500 ICOs that collectively raise $12.9 billion, we examine which issuer and ICO characteristics predict successful real outcomes (increasing issuer employment and avoiding enterprise failure). Success is associated with disclosure, credible commitment to the project, and quality signals. An instrumental variables analysis finds that ICO token exchange listing causes higher future employment, indicating that access to token liquidity has important real consequences for the enterprise.

JEL-codes: G24 G32 K22 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-law and nep-pay
Note: CF LE PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)

Published as Sabrina T Howell & Marina Niessner & David Yermack & Jiang Wei, 2020. "Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales," The Review of Financial Studies, vol 33(9), pages 3925-3974.

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