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The Initial Coin Offering: Is It a Profitable Tool for Investment?

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Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation (ICDEc 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 485))

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Abstract

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have established themselves since 2017 as an attractive alternative for financing innovative companies. However, these new modes of financing from the world of blockchain technology have a very volatile return on investment (ROI) in the short term, and very ambivalent in the medium and long term: 90% of ICOs issued since 2017 have failed. This article attempts to shed some light on the question of the ROI of ICOs. The analysis of some databases of the most significant platforms for ICOs reveals that the highest ROIs reached on average 3100% at their peak and 30% on average over the period 2017- 2022. The results of the analysis suggest that given the level of risk of ICOs, they do not represent a good financial asset over a long period; on the other hand, they would be a good lever for speculation and possibly a good financial strategy to boost the financial performance of a diversified portfolio.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mohammed V University in Rabat., Rabat, Morocco

    Hicham Sadok

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  1. Hicham Sadok
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Correspondence to Hicham Sadok .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ESEN, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Rim Jallouli

  2. ESEN, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Mohamed Anis Bach Tobji

  3. University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Meriam Belkhir

  4. University of Minho, CICS.NOVA, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria Soares

  5. University of Minho, CICS.NOVA, Braga, Portugal

    Beatriz Casais

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Sadok, H. (2023). The Initial Coin Offering: Is It a Profitable Tool for Investment?. In: Jallouli, R., Bach Tobji, M.A., Belkhir, M., Soares, A.M., Casais, B. (eds) Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation. ICDEc 2023. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 485. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42788-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42788-6_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42787-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42788-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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