Table 10.
Definition of variables
| Variable name | Type | Definition | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amount raised in crowdsale | Continuous | Total amount of funds (in US dollars) raised during the ICO’s crowdsale stage. Where possible, the total is calculated by multiplying the amounts of cryptocurrencies received by their closing price on the last day of the ICO. Where amounts in cryptocurrency are unavailable, the US dollar figures disclosed by the ICO’s promoter are used. If the ICO conducts a presale without any effective restrictions (such as participation by invitation only, or a minimum investment requirement above USD 5000) on participants, funds raised during the presale are counted toward the crowdsale | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Amount raised in presale | Continuous | Total amount of funds (in US dollars) raised during the ICO’s presale stage. Where possible, the total is calculated by multiplying the amounts of cryptocurrencies received by their closing price on the last day of the ICO. Where amounts in cryptocurrency are unavailable, the US dollar figures disclosed by the ICO’s promoter are used | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Business model available | Indicator | The documentation details the market opportunity the product financed by the ICO addresses and lays out how the company will eventually earn money | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Celebrity endorsement | Indicator | The ICO is being promoted by a popular entertainment or sports personality on social media | Company website, social media |
| Crowdsale is auction | Indicator | The token price for crowdsale investors depends on the total amount of funds raised during the crowdsale | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Crowdsale max. discount | Continuous |
Maximum discount given to (usually large or early) investors during the crowdsale stage. Calculated as Crowdsale max. discount = (maximum crowdsale price − minimum crowdsale price)/maximum crowdsale price |
Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Development road map available | Indicator | The documentation contains a road map with dates and milestones for the development and commercialization of the product | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Experienced team | Indicator | The founding team has an average of at least ten years of experience in technology, management or entrepreneurship | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Financial advisor disclosed | Indicator | The financial/blockchain expert (either a company or an individual) who advised the company in arranging its ICO is disclosed | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Funding milestones | Indicator | The terms of funding lay out binding milestones (e.g., development of a working prototype) that need to be met in order for the funds raised in the ICO to be released to the firm | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Fundraiser has maximum (“hard cap”) | Indicator | There is a maximum number of tokens the company will sell in its ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Fundraiser has minimum (“soft cap”) | Indicator | There is a minimum number of tokens to be sold or money to be raised for the ICO to be considered a success | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Has a presale | Indicator | The ICO has a dedicated presale stage reserved for large investors. Zero if the presale has no minimum investment requirement | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Has VC backing | Indicator | The company has received funding from a venture capitalist, in exchange for an equity stake or tokens, prior or during the ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media, Crunchbase |
| High-quality advisory team | Indicator | Advisory team is of high quality, i.e., mostly composed of individuals with significant experience as entrepreneurs, executives, venture investors or academics | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Independent custodian for ICO funds | Indicator | The funds raised in the ICO are held by an independent third party, e.g., a Swiss foundation where the majority of the foundation board is composed of individuals not presently in a business relationship with the promoter of the ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media, commercial registers |
| Investors from other jurisdictions excluded | Indicator | Investors from jurisdictions other than the US are not allowed to participate in the ICO (most commonly countries that have banned ICOs such as China and South Korea and countries on the OFAC sanctions list) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Investors have governance rights | Indicator | Token holders have a right to vote on investment, business or governance decisions. Includes advisory votes | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Is a security | Indicator | The token likely qualifies as a financial security. Most commonly because it pays interest or dividends, because the issuing firm commits to buybacks using the firm’s net income or because the token represents a physical asset or a share in an investment fund | Company website, ICO documentation |
| Is a utility token | Indicator | The token is intended to be used primarily for consumption of a product or services and does not generate cash distributions to holders | Company website, ICO documentation |
| Is cryptographic token | Indicator | The ICO takes the form of a smart contract on an existing blockchain (e.g., Ethereum, Waves, Qtum, Nxt) | Company website, ICO documentation |
| Is currency or general-purpose blockchain | The token is intended to be used primarily as a currency, replacing traditional fiat money, or as the unit of account for a new general-purpose blockchain able to execute smart contracts | Company website, ICO documentation | |
| Issuer has customers for product | Indicator | The product or service underlying the ICO has users (regardless of whether they pay for the service or not) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| KYC/AML procedure | Indicator | The ICO’s promoter required participants to identify themselves by submitting personal documents such as a passport copy, utility bills, etc. | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Legal advisor disclosed | Indicator | The legal expert (either a company or an individual) who advised the company in arranging its ICO is disclosed | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Legal form and jurisdiction known | Indicator | Type of legal entity (e.g., limited liability company or joint-stock corporation) and jurisdiction of incorporation of the entity conducting the ICO are disclosed | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Legal form is foundation | Indicator | The issuing entity is a not-for-profit foundation (typically incorporated in Switzerland or Liechtenstein) | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Legal entity is corporation | Indicator | The issuing entity is a joint-stock corporation or its equivalent in non-US jurisdictions | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Legal entity is LLC | Indicator | The issuing entity is a limited liability corporation (LLC) or limited liability partnership (LLP) or their equivalent in non-US jurisdictions | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Length of ICO (calendar days, actual) | Discrete | Actual length of the crowdsale period in number of days | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Length of ICO (calendar days, planned) | Discrete | Planned maximum length of the crowdsale period in number of days | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Lockup period unsold tokens | Continuous | Weighted average of the period over which unsold tokens are locked up (i.e., cannot be sold). Equals zero if the tokens are not locked up | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Percentage of hard cap raised | Continuous | Fraction of the maximum amount the company manages to raise during its ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Postal address known | Indicator | Physical postal address of the ICO promoter’s headquarters is known | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Presale discount | Continuous |
Presale discount over the crowdsale “list price,” based on original price quotes in cryptocurrencies where available for both presale and crowdsale, otherwise based on converted US dollar prices Presale discount = (maximum crowdsale price – minimum presale price)/maximum crowdsale price |
Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Presale lockup period (weighted avg.) | Continuous | Lockup period of tokens sold during the presale stage. Where tokens are subject to a vesting schedule or only part of the tokens is locked up, we track the weighted average maturity of all tokens sold at the presale stage. Where different fractions of presold tokens are subject to different lockup periods, but the size of those fractions is unclear, we calculate the weighted average maturity based on the minimum lockup period | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Presale tokens locked up | Indicator | Tokens sold during the presale stage cannot be sold for a certain period of time | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Product can be tried out | Indicator | Prospective investors can try the product or prototype | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Product or prototype developed | Indicator | The product for which funding is being raised or an early “alpha” or “beta” version of it has been developed | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Project code available | Indicator | The company provides original source code for the project it is raising money for on Github as of the first day of the ICO | Github |
| Qualified investors only | Indicator | Only investors with accredited investor status or equivalent are allowed to participate in the ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Registered in offshore financial center | Indicator | The jurisdiction of incorporation is an offshore financial center as per the definition of the International Monetary Fund | Company website, ICO documentation, commercial registers |
| Simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) | Indicator | The ICO employs a “Simple Agreement for Future Tokens” (SAFT) under which tokens are only issued once the platform on which they can be used has been released | Company website, ICO documentation |
| Smart contract code available | Indicator | If the token sold during the ICO takes the form of a smart contract on another blockchain, is the source code for the smart contract available on Github prior to the ICO? | Github |
| Team business background missing | Indicator | Insufficient information to determine the value of the variable “team member with business background” | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Team experience missing | Indicator | Insufficient information to determine the value of the variable “experienced team” | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Team lockup period (weighted avg.) | Continuous | Weighted average maturity of the tokens under control of the issuing company and the founding team. Includes all the tokens also included in “Token share team (ex ante)” | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Team member with business background | Indicator | At least one of the team members has significant experience in entrepreneurship, consulting or management | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Team size | Discrete | Number of full-time team member at the time of the ICO, excluding advisors and contractors | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Team tokens locked up | Indicator | Some fraction of the tokens held by the issuing company and/or the founding team are subject to a vesting schedule | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Time to listing (calendar days) | Discrete | Number of days between the last day of the crowdsale period and the first day for which a closing price is listed on coinmarketcap | Company website, ICO documentation, social media, coinmarketcap |
| Token share crowdsale investors (ex ante) | Continuous | Fraction of total token supply allocated to crowdsale investors following the crowdsale, assuming the crowdsale sells out | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Token share crowdsale investors (ex post) | Continuous | Fraction of tokens held by crowdsale investors after the crowdsale, after all tokens have been distributed and unsold tokens destroyed or allocated to the issuer | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Token share presale investors (ex ante) | Continuous | Fraction of total token supply allocated to presale investors following the crowdsale, assuming the crowdsale sells out | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Token share producers/miners (ex ante) | Continuous | Fraction of total token supply reserved for “miners” or producers on the platform following the crowdsale, assuming the crowdsale sells out | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Token share team (ex ante) | Continuous | Fraction of total token supply under control of the issuing firm and the founding team following the crowdsale, assuming the crowdsale sells out. Includes all tokens under the control of the firm, including tokens reserved promotional activities, “bounties” (compensation for promotional activities), compensation of suppliers, employees and advisors and any other residual categories | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Token supply is fixed | Indicator | The total number of tokens stays fixed indefinitely, as opposed to tokens that allow for inflation or the creation of additional tokens under certain circumstances | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Total amount raised | Continuous | Total amount of funds (in US dollars) raised during the ICO. Includes funds raised during crowdsale and presale. Where possible, the total is calculated by multiplying the amounts of cryptocurrencies received by their closing price on the last day of the ICO. Where amounts in cryptocurrency are unavailable, the US dollar figures disclosed by the ICO’s promoter are used | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Unknown or low-quality advisors | Indicator | Advisory team is either unknown or of low quality (i.e., mostly composed of “crypto evangelists,” celebrities or similar) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Unsold tokens “burnt” or proportional allocation | Indicator | Unsold tokens are either destroyed or the token allocation is done proportionally (e.g., the team receives 20% of all tokens created following the crowdsale, regardless of its result) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Unsold tokens kept by issuer | Indicator | The issuer retains unsold tokens, either for future token sales or to be used for a different purpose | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| US retail investors excluded | Indicator | Non-accredited investors from the United States are not allowed to participate in the ICO | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Use of proceeds disclosed in detail | Indicator | The issuer provides a detailed breakdown for the use funds raised during the ICO (e.g., X software developers at Y dollars and hour are required to do Z hours of work to complete the product) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Use of proceeds mentioned | Indicator | The issuer provides a rough breakdown for the use of funds raised during the ICO (e.g., 40% product development, 10% legal, 50% marketing) | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Utility token enables decentralization | Indicator | The funds raised in the ICO are used to develop a decentralized platform on which buyers and sellers of a particular service or product engage in market-based interaction, as opposed to the company conducting the ICO being or becoming the sole provider of the service or product | Company website, ICO documentation, social media |
| Whitepaper page count | Discrete | Number of pages in the white paper document | ICO documentation |
| Years since foundation | Discrete | Years since the founding team started working on the project for which the ICO is being conducted. Where unavailable, the date of incorporation from the commercial register is used. Rounded to the nearest integer | Company website, ICO documentation, social media, commercial registers |