Crypto and blockchains startups, even those that hold great promise, have sadly received the full brunt of 2018’s dismal market conditions, resulting in a widespread loss of clients and investment interest. For example, freshly-printed studies have revealed that Coinbase, widely regarded as this industry’s golden child, saw 80% of its U.S.-based customer base dissipate, resulting in a similar decrease in volumes. But most recently, on Tuesday, Civil, a promising blockchain-centric journalism startup, revealed that it had suffered a great setback.
Blockchain Startup Suffers Setback Amid Bear Market
While the conditions of 2018’s crypto winter are something that investors have grown accustomed to, Civil, an upstart blockchain startup, recently revealed that it had to formally cancel its initial coin offering (ICO) due to a lack of interest.
For those who missed the memo, Civil’s raison d’être, if you will, is to revolutionize how digital journalism is managed from the ground-up. When it was founded in 2017, the company’s top brass envisioned a “new economy for journalism,” with many of the firm’s co-founders visualizing a series of platforms that brought change to this age-old industry.
However, ambitions don’t come without a cost. And in the case of Civil, that cost was one of a monetary variety. So while the firm initially saw a $5 million seed investment comes its way from ConsenSys, the Google of the blockchain world, Civil still craved capital. More specifically, the startup remained hell-bent on its plans to raise a minimum $8 million via an ICO of its CVL Ethereum-based tokens.
But now, after the company’s one-month-long, long-awaited Civil Token ICO has finally elapsed, it is apparent that the startup overstated demand for its ICO, missing its soft cap by $6.5 million dollars. As reported by TechCrunch, although the firm’s head was in the clouds, in the end, only 1,012 investors purchased $1,435,491 worth of CVL tokens.
Seeing that it missed its soft cap by millions, Civil has sadly announced that it will be providing compensation to all participants of its ICO, with refund transactions being slated to be sent by October 29th.
In a testament to the resilience of crypto innovators, who will stop at nothing to achieve the improbable, Civil has since revealed that it isn’t ready to shutter its blinds and close its doors. In fact, in a status update, Matthew Iles, the founder and CEO of the startup, alluded to the fact that his firm had learned from its mistakes, immediately divulging plans for a “much simpler token sale.”
Attempting to turn the unfortunate situation on its head, Iles adding that “Civil isn’t going anywhere [and is] here to say” due to a $3.5 million investment from ConsenSys, who seems to be a big believer in the startup. Eventually, following its second token sale, along with the use of its now-stocked up war chest, Civil intends to release a blockchain-publishing WordPress plugin, a “community governance application,” and a developer tool for utilizing data gathered by the firm’s operations.
The Brooklyn-based firm also inked a strategic deal with the world-renowned Associated Press, as reported by NewsBTC on a previous occasion, who will use Civil’s products to better its business in multiple capacities. Along with the Associated Press, Forbes also recently joined hands with Civil, which will see the major media outlet run the startup’s blockchain applications through the works.
So while a failed funding round may have spelled the end of any other crypto project, Civil’s drive for innovation likely only rose exponentially after its ICO went kaput.
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