An unprecedented hike in fundraising via Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) has been reported in the first quarter of 2018 than what was recorded in the previous year.
The total ICO funding for last year was $5.5 billion, while in the first quarter of 2018 itself global ICOs raised $6.3 billion, which is 118 percent of the 2017 total, according to data collected by CoinDesk.
However, a corresponding growth is not registered in the number of ICOs launched this year.
The first quarter saw 59 percent as many ICOs as in all of 2017 receive capital.
Most of these sales netted less than $100 million, showing that a number of projects are still eager to sell tokens, despite the regulatory risk, CoinDesk says.
SEC had ruled in December that at least some ICOs were securities offerings, which must be registered with the agency.
Despite a common perception that the controversial fundraising method is risky and not going to last long, investors' appetite for token sales appears to be intact, the data shows.
Hundreds of start-ups seeking to raise capital for new projects is considered as a major reason for the massive inflow of money to buy digital tokens.
Regulators in some countries have raised serious questions about the transparency of ICOs and the risks of scams, although authorities in countries such as Switzerland and France have disclosed plans to attract new launches.
Supporters say blockchain will disrupt industries from finance to logistics and that ICOs are a novel way of crowd-funding.
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