It may come as no surprise to hear that venture capitalists are skeptical about investing in initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Indeed, all four panelists on “Where and How to Invest in Fintech Now,” at Bank Innovation 2018 in San Francisco, unanimously dismissed investing in ICOs.
ICOs are rapidly falling in popularity. This fall could, partially, be tied to the drop in cryptocurrency prcies (bitcoin is currently at $7,420, according to Coinbase), but the main cause is the growing skepticism about their intentions among regulatory bodies, the financial services industry, and the general public.
“80%, 90% to 95% of them are big scams,” Melissa Widner, General Partner at NAB (National Australia Bank) Ventures said at Bank Innovation 2018.
Fellow panelists, Stephanie Choo, Partner and Managing Director at Portag3 Ventures; Anju Patwardhan, Managing Director at CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund / FoFs and Shari Van Cleave, Manager, Digital Labs at Wells Fargo, didn’t disagree.
Watch full video here. This video is sponsored by White Clarke Group.