The appetite among investors for all things shipping and blockchain has suffered a severe reverse.
Blockchain start-up 300cubits, whose high profile tokens are called TEUs, has just released details of its completed initial coin offering (ICO). The Hong Kong company managed to raise around $250,000, far less than the $12m it had originally sought.
Just 168,400 TEU tokens from a total of 18m were sold, equivalent to a paltry 0.9% takeup.
Johnson Leung, one of the founders of 300cubits, put a brave face on the disappointing sale, telling Splash the platform would still push ahead as planned with a launch soon.
“The crowd sale part of the ICO model has slowed substantially due to the sentiment of the wider crypto market. However, ICO is one of our funding strategies. The fund raised so far is sufficient for us to launch a functional product. We will continue with the project while exploring other funding sources,” Leung said.
Commenting on LinkedIn, Lars Jensen from SeaIntelligence Consulting and a regular Splash contributor, wrote: “[I]rrespective of any potential merits of the underlying project and technology, the ICO can only be described as failing to raise the targeted capital and clearly shows that while blockchain is the ‘hottest’ technology presently, this does not automatically equal a willingness to invest.”
