Initial Coin Offering bandwagon comes to shuddering halt

Startups raised just $326 million from ICOs in August, the smallest amount since May 2017, according to Autonomous Research. In contrast, around $3 billion was raised on average during the first three months of the year.

ICOs using Ethereum fuelled the ETH price surge in 2017, but they could now be the reason for the currency’s price slide, as some projects cash out to cover expenses amid concerns over a bearish market.

It’s a scam

Nouriel Roubini, Chairman of his own Roubini Global Economics firm and a Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, recently hit out at blockchain and cypto.

“It’s a scam. The whole ICO industry is a scam. People are robbing, raising funds for projects with zero value,” he told Forbes.

Roubini stated that the US Securities and Exchanges Commission’s rejection of several Bitcoin ETFs was “no surprise at all. It isn’t the real asset; it is nothing but a fad”.

He labelled blockchain a useless and over-hyped technology that will never go anywhere because of proof of stake and scalability issues. “No matter what, this is not going to become another benchmark because it is just too slow,” he commented.

In Roubini’s opinion, Bitcoin doesn’t comply with the definition of money. Comparing blockchain technology to the internet in its early stages was “complete nonsense. The adoption of this technology is nowhere close to that level”.

And the fact that banks are investing resources in testing blockchain “doesn’t mean they’re going to adopt it…There is nothing new or unique about banks testing new technologies. They test thousands of new technologies every day”.

Talking trash on Twitter

Roubini frequently goes on to Twitter to trash Bitcoin. On 25th August, he tweeted that “Bitcoin is a collapsing means of payment and thus is not a currency. $70 million of transactions in a month and collapsing from a $270 million per month last year. That is pathetic.”

Various people replied angrily, some saying that “using your logic, #USD is not a cryptocurrency”. A user with the handle @MiFalck limited his or her reply to a GIF of a person rolling back his eyes.

Saber or @pabx06 argued that the “same thing goes for travellers’ cheques: “Because traveller’s cheque is denominated in USD: it must mean US Dollar is dying”.

SandieSN replied that the “US Dollar has lost 92% of its value since 1920, & will never recover. There has never been a fiat in history that hasn’t collapsed. Bitcoin is a peer to peer currency, requiring no 3rd party for payments. This is true freedom. No more being told daily withdrawal limit is €60”.

KesKon agreed: “#US #Dollar Use in #International #Trade Keeps #Falling Given the Rise of Other #Currencies. Using your logic, #USD is not a currency”.