Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurial Finance: The Rise of ICOs
Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurial Finance: The Rise of ICOs

Summary/Abstract: Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a fundamentally new funding model, can be viewed as “the next big thing” in entrepreneurial finance. ICOs are unregulated issuances of cryprocurrencies used by blockchain startups to fund the development of distributed applications where users interact directly with each other rather than through a central hub of the company which developed and controls the application. The aim of this exploratory study is to explain the spectacular rise of the ICOs and their relevance for entrepreneurial finance. The main finding is that ICOs effectively change the landscape of entrepreneurial finance, shifting barriers to capital formation, enabling funding previously unfundable projects, supporting new organizational and governance forms, democratizing finance, and contributing to the building of sharingdigital economy.

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