New research by Ernst and Young argues that over 10% of the funds raised in the initial offers have been stolen or lost. The decisions come with a report detailing what Ernst and Young believe are the risks of investing in such a tightly regulated market.
Phish hackers and feast on ICO’s
In their study, Ernst and Young co-operated with the IB Group to analyze 372 ICO’s in the cryptocurrency space, but the professional services firm did not designate a timeframe for their findings. According to the news, research teams dragged data from public founts through exchanges, data aggregators, ICO reports, ICO trackers, new sites, blockchain platforms/scanners, and social media dedicated to the blockchain.
They spotted that, about the ICO concerned, about 400 million dollars of a fund-raising fund of 3.7 billion dollars was either lost or stolen. For theft of stocks, hackers have preferred the most favored phishing assaults that could deceive ICO participants to send cryptocurrency or file to a fraudulent site. Research proves that pirates have lost up to 1.5 million dollars a month by phishing alone.
Hackers have undoubtedly seen ICOs as benefits because the fundraising model attracted billions of dollars of investment last year. Some ICO, found the report, saw taxpayers pouring cash at an average rate of 300,000 dollars per second. This cash flow had 90% of the ICOS in June 2017 reaching the fundraising goal at the tip of the boom. This investment frenzy collapsed in the last months of the year, as only 25% of ICO’s reached their targets in November.
In discussion with Reuters, Paul Brody, Ernest and Young’s global innovation leader in blockchain technology, attributes this escape to poorly constructed projects that are not quality:
We were astounded by the quality of white papers, we see apparent coding errors, and we see conflicts of interest between chip-issuing companies and the tokens community.
The volume has exploded, people have raised their fundraising targets, and quality has fallen, Brody thinks.
Investors, the company says, have often been blinded by any red flags, including obvious coding errors in project albums, for fear of losing money. As such, the service company thinks that the irrational ratings of the tokens have triggered the ICO boom without taking into account market principles.
Increases ecstasy, a warning to be careful
It is essential to note that Ernest and Young do not remove ICO as a fundraising model. Ernest and Young is a financial consulting and advisory firm and as such the report is designed to increase investment awareness on how to make the right decisions in cryptocurrency.
This advice and its warnings are well worth it. Funds of 10% of stolen ICO funds add a growing number of hacked assets. Hackers have significantly affected the cryptocurrency community and space seems to build a better infrastructure to neutralize the attacks, it is essential to remain vigilant as a community to avoid such traps.
It is also wise to do the relevant research before investing in an ICO. Still mostly unregulated, the world of cryptocurrency is full of risks, from unsuccessful projects to exit scams and Ponzi schemes. Therefore, it is better to stay informed and take care when choosing where to invest your money, whether it’s in cryptocurrencies, ICO or otherwise.