Top Picks for ICOs in 2018

ICOs were, hands down, one of the biggest investor stories of 2017. With cumulative funding levels that approached $4 billion, ICOs placed the traditional funding world on notice. 

However, with 2017 also being the year that saw the launch of the most ICOs to date, 2017 represented a mixed bag for ICO investors, with stories of big wins and big losses abounding.

We looked at 2017 to determine who the big winners among ICOs were. Using the characteristics these top 2017 ICOs demonstrated as a baseline, we have some ideas about the top ICO performers for 2018.

A Word Before We Go On...

Before you read the rest of this post, you should note that ICO investing is highly speculative. You should not engage in this line of investment without thorough due diligence...ever.

To judge the 2017 ICOs, we examined them through three criteria: total funding, return-on-investment produced for 2017, and their BMJ QuickScore, which measures an ICO's trustworthiness.

Here's what we found:

2017 Top ICOs by Funding

1. Filecoin tops the funding chart, coming in at a whopping $257 million in its crowdsale.
2. Tezos is not far behind, raking in $232 million.
3. EOS comes in at number three, raking in $185 million.

2017 Top ICOs by Return-on-Investment

It should be noted that most ICOs produced a positive ROI in 2017. Some, however, were able to do this more convincingly than others.

1. QTUM saw a token price increase from $0.30 to $62.40.
2. Santiment saw a 2,000 percent price increase.
3. Populous produced more than a 1,500 percent price increase on its tokens.

2017 Top ICOs by  BMJ QuickScore

The top three by BMJ QuickScore all completed their crowdsales in December. Complete funding results may not be available.

1. DropDeck is a royalty and debt financing platform and holds the distinction of receiving a perfect score from BMJ QuickScore analysts.
2. BitDegree is a blockchain-based education program that receives a BMJ QuickScore of 4.9.
3. PayPie seeks to create a transparent means for generating credit scores, has a BMJ QuickScore of 4.9, and has seen a price high of ten-times its initial coin value.

Understanding Why Some ICOs Succeed

Per our ICO Manifesto for Founders, the factors that lead to an ICO's success are:

• People
• Product
• PR

Basically, an ICO needs a management team that is competent enough to run the project, a sellable product, and good press promoting both. 

Then there is the role of hype. Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director for social trading platform eToro, stated that when it came to the most successful token sales: "It was all PR driven and hype-driven, combined with a great timing of the market."

A key factor that may also play a role is regulatory compliance. While most investors did not actively consider compliance when determining an ICO's worth in 2017, the increasing focus on ICO regulations by the world's governments makes this an issue for consideration.

Top Three ICOs of 2018

With these factors in mind, our choices for the top three ICOs for 2018 are:

1. Cypherium. Cypherium is a permissionless and scalable blockchain solution for leveraging multiple levels of governance. The management team consists of former staff members of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
2. Experty. Experty is a voice and video-calling application that is seeking to form a decentralized platform for the safe monetization of consultants' skills.
3. RightMesh. RightMesh seeks to link Ethereum accounts with nodes worldwide in a way to motivate the sharing of resources, including data and storage.

In Conclusion

As with all investments, due diligence is needed any time you are considering an ICO investment opportunity. It is important that you realize that the valuation of an ICO is largely based on speculation, so extreme caution is warranted. However, if you are willing to invest despite the risk, these offerings are poised to produce healthy ROIs in 2018.

Want to know more about current and upcoming ICOs? Click here for our complete list of Upcoming ICOs and stay up-to-date with what is happening in the world of New Finance!